Branded
by FreakyGreenEyes123
Summary: Takes place right after season 2A. Just as Callie thinks that everything is finally coming together for her, it all begins to fall apart. But how can she fight for something she feels she has no control over? Does she even choose to fight...or will she allow her father to have his way? Or... she could always just run.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

* * *

Imagine being surrounded by a circle of fire since the day you were born but only just waking up and realizing you were there.

On the outside of that fire, you can't see anyone or anything so you have no idea if there is any sign of life outside of it.

And by the time you turn around and see if there's anything that can help you put out the fire, all you see on the ground is a matchbox with three matches inside of it.

Now, Callie was given **two options**.

To stay inside of the circle, where she knew she would be safe since she had been there all her life without realizing it. But now that she was awake, she'd be unhappy because she was alone. Despite the three people who just suddenly appeared, she knew she would never belong.

Or to take a chance and jump over the fire, not knowing exactly what the outside of it entailed.

_Perhaps an endless and long battle that would drain everyone that was both in and out of the fire. _

_Or perhaps she'd bring the fire to those who were safe, harming the innocent people she loved._

_Or perhaps she'd find even more fire, realizing that she couldn't prevent herself from being burned._

But Callie didn't like either of those options. She preferred option number three that she would give herself and didn't involve anyone trying to take anything from her or hurting the ones she loved the most.

She preferred not to get burned again.

Or maybe she was never burned in the first place.

Maybe she was **branded** all along.

If you were to look up the term _branded_ in the dictionary, the most common definition would be marked with a branding iron to show ownership.

That's must've been how it had been from the very beginning only she didn't know it.

She was never a person like she thought she was.

She was always someone else's property.

Nothing was ever her choice and she was tired of everyone trying to take control of her own life. And every time that happened, they were always people she didn't know.

Option number three was the matchbox.

Option number three was her choice and it was safe for everyone else involved.

Callie grabbed all three of the matchsticks and lit them all at once, making sure to drop them into the circle with her and let the fire consume her completely.

_If she didn't have control, nobody would._

* * *

The second Callie saw Stef and Lena approaching from behind Brandon on the bench; she released her lips off of his. He turned around and noticed his moms from afar and quickly stood up, realizing that they hadn't seen either or them at all and seemed lost in their own conversation. Brandon could tell that they were having an argument of some kind and he breathed a sigh of relief. Just as he turned around to tell Callie they were safe, he was surprised to see that she was no longer beside him.

He glanced around the perimeter in search for any sign of the girl, but with all of the people around it was easy for him to lose track of her.

Callie knew that she was spinning out of control, but she wouldn't let someone else make these decisions for her anymore. Even if they were the wrong decisions they were going to be made by _only her_ this time.

_She would try to make sense of it all some way or another. _

_She wouldn't view herself as the victim anymore. _

_She's only a victim if she lets herself be portrayed as such._

_And if that meant setting the fire herself and watching the flames burn everything away then that was exactly what would happen._

Robert could refuse to sign the papers and legally be her father, but Callie would _never be his daughter_.

The Fosters could fight the Quinns in court and make a ton of promises, but they'd _never actually win_.

She could pretend to be a part of their family, but she knew it was _never meant to be_.

_Otherwise wouldn't it have already happened?_

Callie would make damn sure that she didn't have either of them, before she'd let herself get burned a second time by someone else.

She would do the burning this time.

She'd be in control.

* * *

**A/N: Attention this is NOT A BRALLIE. Although there might be some scenes of Brandon and Callie in here, I want to be clear that every decision Callie makes between them is not being made out of love but rather out of confusion. In that finale, I'm not gonna lie, she looked confused as hell to me like she was trying to make sense of something because she needed **_**anything**_** to make sense at that point. That was my interpretation of it, I don't want anyone to continue reading assuming that this will end on a positive Brallie note. **

**Also, this is sorta my sequel to Burned. If you read it, great. If not, you don't need to but just know that it might help some to read it, though not necessary.**

**In Burned, the moms found out about the burning/selfharm and thought they put a stop to it.**

**In this fic, Callie will be dealing with a thousand more issues and taking burning to a whole other level. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

* * *

Callie ran as far away from the house as she could, not knowing where she was going and not caring either. This wasn't a neighborhood that she recognized but it didn't' matter since she wouldn't recognize anyone soon enough.

A thousand thoughts were roaring through her mind at once, and she felt like she was going insane. Her head was throbbing from all the crying she did since she heard the news, and she couldn't take her mind off of Robert's face when he told her that he wouldn't sign the papers a second time.

_And then, he told her that he wanted her to be happy?_

He might as well have said, "I know I've ruined your life and took away your happiness, but at least you can live with us now and make us even happier than we already were."

_Because that's the way it really felt._

_It was like he had no care in the world for what she wanted and he was just like cps._

_Only he was worse._

_He was her own blood and he had no problem taking away the only people that she valued most in this world._

_And he had the right to because of what he was to her._

Callie felt her cellphone start to vibrate in the pocket of her white dress and she was almost afraid to see who it was.

_If it was Brandon, how would she have explained the kiss? Or would she really have to?_

_If it was Robert, what could she say to him that she already hadn't? She wouldn't even answer._

_If it were Stef and Lena, how would she break the news to them? Or did Robert and Sophia already do just that._

She finally stopped running and lifted the phone out of her pocket, only to see Wyatt's name pop up.

She hadn't talked to him after what he did to Liam, but now wasn't the time to get self-righteous. He made a mistake just like she had. And he was the only safe thing she had at the moment.

_The only thing she had that wouldn't be taken away from her._

"Hello?" she answered abruptly, too abruptly.

"Callie, uh you picked up…I uh…"

"Yeah. And now I need you to pick me up…"

* * *

"We're glad you told us," Stef said the second Jude finished talking. She glanced over to her wife and waited for her to say something, but she just looked to Stef as having a mixture of both confusion and shame on her face. Instead of focusing on her at the moment, Stef decided it'd be best to focus on her son, so that he didn't feel like either of them were mad at him. The last thing they were going to be mad at him was for a kiss, a kiss that he obviously felt guilty or ashamed for. "You did the right thing. And I know it must've been hard for you to come to us with this, yes?"

Stef's plan to distract Jude worked. "I guess," Jude replied. "I just thought you should know because I didn't think it would be fair to you," he looked at Lena when he spoke. "I guess, what I'm trying to say is… you shouldn't quit your job because of me."

Her son's comment finally got Lena to snap out of it, "Oh honey…I didn't—"

"I know. You already said that you didn't do it because of me. But if it weren't for me then you wouldn't have quit."

"Connor's dad—"

"Isn't the school," Stef finished for him. "Bud, can you give a second?" she asked Jude in the calmest voice she could muster.

Jude nodded after taking one last look at Lena's frustrated body language.

"Thanks, love," Stef smiled.

* * *

And as soon as Jude was out of earshot, Lena glared at her wife disapprovingly. "So," she started awkwardly. "Do you mind telling me what the hell was that?"

"Lena—"

"You're supposed to be on my side, Stef. Why is it that you can never manage to do that?"

"Don't even go there, Lena. Of course I'm on your side. I'm the only one on your side in case you haven't noticed. You're not even on your side."

"Really? Because I don't see it that way at all," she took a deep breath when she felt herself getting riled up before she continued, "Look, I get it. You're mad because I quit. You think that I'm going to leave you here to deal with all of our financial problems on your own."

"This isn't about money, Lena. Come on—" Their conversation came to an abrupt stop when they realized another couple had come to sit on the couch beside them. Although these other people seemed lost in their own conversation, the two women decided that they weren't going to continue their argument in front of anyone.

"Well, I could use another drink," Lena said as she stood up first to walk away.

"Me too. Excuse us," Stef tried to smile as she followed her wife to a more secluded area, closer toward the house.

* * *

"Stef, all you've been doing is making jabs at me about money ever since I told you I quit. You've barely even talked to me since I told you about it."

"That's not true," Stef tried to defend.

"No? …Less, than ten minutes after we walked in here, I mention how beautiful this house is and what did you tell me?"

"I—Wh—" Stef stuttered as she tried to get the words out.

"You told me that we'd be lucky to live in the house that we live in now that I quit my job. It's like you've been trying to get me to crawl back to Monte without actually saying it. Admit it. You want me to tell her that I was wrong, that I was wrong about defending our son from a bully, a bully who, by the way, is a grown man—"

"Not to say that you were wrong about defending him… that you were wrong about quitting. You leaving the job that you love over something you can't fix alone is stupid, Lena."

"So now I'm stupid? Great this just great, Stef. The support is overwhelming," Lena mumbled.

"I didn't say you were stupid. I said that your decision was stupid…Look honey, I know that you think this is helping Jude but it's not."

"He needs to see that we're going to fight for him."

"I agree with you but he needs to see us do it in a way that doesn't hurt him in the process. He thinks this is his fault. He—" Stef took a deep breath as she stared at Lena, who looked as if she was about to defend herself again, but Stef beat her to the punch, "Honey, you need to realize that the person you are mad at isn't the ones suffering here. Connor's dad isn't the school, or Monte, or the school board. I know that you feel like you have to do something, but this isn't it…If anything Jude needs to see that we don't need to quit to solve your problems. You fight for what you want the right way… I mean, look at Callie. She thought about quitting all of this and now look where she is. She's this much closer to getting adopted, she's not burning anymore, she's talking more than ever. Did you not hear her on that stage? Seriously, I thought she would never shut up." Stef smiled when she heard Lena chuckle.

"I think Mariana is rubbing off on her."

"Yeah, a little too much," Stef joked as she stared at her wife, admiring the first real smile she had seen ever since she got back from her trip with Jude.

"You're right, Stef. As much as I hate to admit it you're right. I'll talk to Monte and see if she's still willing to…"

"I don't like being right you know," Stef said in a sincere voice.

Lena furrowed her eyebrows at her wife and smiled, "Since when?"

Stef tried to hide the smirk that was forming on her face.

"Exactly… Where is Callie by the way?" Lena asked as she glanced around them for her.

"I'm sure she's around here somewhere. Probably with her clone. That little girl has been following her everywhere. Have you noticed?"

"Yes, I have… And what about you?"

"What about me?" Stef narrowed her eyes at her wife.

"Well, you asked Jude how he felt about Callie addressing Robert as her father on stage…"

"Yes, I did."

"So… How do you feel about it? I mean, I wasn't expecting that at all. I'm sure you have your opinions about that."

"Honestly, I'm not sure what to think. Maybe it's a good thing. He didn't get a chance to be in her life and that wasn't his fault, right? Anyways, he signed the abandonment papers so we can adopt her. He kept his word... I think he seems like a pretty decent guy."

"He is," Lena smiled as she wrapped her arm around her wife's arm, and they led themselves toward the house. But they froze from fear the second they heard a loud scream coming from the inside of it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

* * *

Instinctively, the cop in her, prompted Stef to follow the scream inside of the house. And Lena followed closely behind. It was a woman's scream. They were sure of it, but they hadn't expected to see Sophia's mom, Jill, hunched over her daughter on the bathroom floor. "Oh my God," Lena practically whispered, while both woman had to do a double-check, to verify that the unconscious girl on the floor wasn't Callie.

"Somebody call an ambulance!" Jill yelled, making sure not to take her eyes off of her daughter for a second as she began to gently slap her in the face, "Sophia! ...Sophia!" she repeated.

But once Stef saw the prescription bottle on floor she immediately knew what had happened. Instantly she ran over to help and practically pushed away the couple that was crowding the door, before she knelt down next to Callie's step-mom. The blonde raised two fingers to Sophia's neck to check for a pulse and waited only a few seconds before she began CPR.

Another woman stepped into the bathroom, "Oh my God! What are you doing to her?" she asked in an appalled voice as she stared at Stef with both fear and repulsion. Normally, Stef would glare at her or tell her off, but now wasn't the time to let the rage get to her.

"She's trying to save her life! What the hell are you doing?" Lena replied hastily as she gave the woman a piercing look before turning her attention toward her wife and the teen on the floor.

The few moments after that consisted of mostly silence, aside from Jill's hysterical sobbing and Stef attempting to pump blood and oxygen back into her brain and lungs, in an attempt to regulate Sophia's breathing.

And after just a few attempts, Sophia gasped for air and jumped up from her flat position on the floor, allowing for everyone who witnessed to let out huge sighs of relief.

"The ambulance is on its way," another man informed them and everyone watched as Jill immediately wrapped Sophia in her arms and shut her eyes. When she finally opened them again, she whispered a thank you to Stef, causing Stef to nod politely in return.

"Sophia!" Robert yelled as he entered the bathroom in panic, walking right passed Stef, Lena, and the other couple. But after seeing the girl wrapped around his wife's arms, he immediately relaxed and knelt down next to the two.

Both Lena and Stef took that as their cue to leave the room.

* * *

Callie watched as Wyatt's car pulled up on the side of her, and suddenly it felt like déjà vu.

_Was she really about to run, again?_

_If she was, she was stupid to call Wyatt. He was the one that ruined the plan the last time._

Callie opened the car door, got in, and turned to face him with a flattened expression.

"Uh," Wyatt started, "When you told me to come an pick you up, I didn't realize I was accepting a proposal," he joked in order to lighten her mood. But instead, the girl looked at him with confusion. "Oh, the dress," he pointed to the white dress she had on.

Callie glanced down and barely altered her reaction. Normally, the joke would make her laugh but she was far from a content mood right now.

"Did something happen? What's wrong?" Wyatt asked as Callie sunk back into the passenger seat and avoided his gaze, preferring to stare out of the window at the trees around her instead. "Well, can you tell me if we're running away again at least?" he smiled.

"With you?" she asked seriously. "That'll happen…"

"Yeah, that'd probably be a bad idea," he mumbled in agreement when he really thought about it. "But you called me, right? That's good... So what exactly are we doing?"

Callie sucked in a huge breath and let it out exaggeratedly, "I really don't know… I don't think I can do this anymore," she said awkwardly furrowing her eyebrows in the process and staring down at her fingers on her lap.

"Do… what?" Wyatt asked worriedly, hoping that she didn't call him just to break it off.

"Everything… all of it," Callie answered as she looked up at him sincerely. "I don't know… I just…I can't keep pretending that everything is going to be fine, that everything is going to work out for the best because that's what these people want me to believe..."

"Stef and Lena?"

"Yeah…" Callie nodded. "But it just doesn't work out for me that way. It never did, you know?" she asked, hoping that Wyatt would understand but realizing that he never would. "…Maybe that's the point. Maybe I'm just this bad luck charm that just wreaks havoc everywhere I go. It's like, no matter where I am or who I'm with there's this evil force that just surrounds me, trying to bring me down… My mother dying, my dad going to jail for ten years, being bounced around from one crappy foster home to another, …Liam, juvie, getting let down by the court when I couldn't get adopted with Jude, and again when they wouldn't let Donald sign the abandonment papers, and again now that Robert won't sign them—"

"What do you mean Robert won't sign them? I thought you told me he agreed to if he knew you were his daughter."

"He lied, Wyatt… He lied. I was so stupid to trust him," she shook her head slightly. "He wants to mess this up for me, just like everyone else always does," Callie gave him a small sarcastic smile before she had to raise her hand to wipe away the tear that managed to fall down her cheek. "Things just aren't supposed to go my way…ever. That's got to be the point, right? I think…. I think I'm just supposed to start letting things happen from now on, because pretending or fighting against it has never worked… And I'm so tired," she raised her voice a little, "I really am."

"I'm sorry…" Wyatt said awkwardly and he too felt upset about the situation. The truth was that he loved Callie but seeing her like this was heartbreaking for him too. He didn't want Callie to give up hope, especially after seeing how truly happy she had been with the Fosters. "…But that doesn't mean that he's going to take you out of Stef and Lena's… It's just a stupid paper, right? It doesn't mean anything."

"Then why won't he sign it?" Callie asked as she stared at Wyatt, hoping that he'd give her some opposition to her own beliefs, something that didn't make her feel like she was someone else's asset and that what she wanted didn't matter. Unfortunately, he couldn't give her one, and after a few seconds her eyes darted down toward the car cigarette lighter... She wasn't even sure how long she had been staring at it until Wyatt asked his next question.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh, uh," Callie stuttered as she tried to find the right words to say. "I didn't know you smoked?" she asked as her right hand immediately drew out the lighter from it's socket. She examined it slowly, and suddenly she silently wished that she had been in the car alone instead.

"I don't," Wyatt responded in confusion. "My mother did. This is her car, remember?"

"Does it get really hot?" Callie asked out of curiosity without raising her gaze to meet him. Her eyes had been examining the small device in complete fascination as she ran her finger along the warm metal part. Reluctantly, she started to place one of her fingers inside of it, before Wyatt snatched it out of her hands.

"Be careful!" he yelled. "Yes, it gets hot. You can really burn yourself, Callie," he said hurriedly.

_That's the point_, Callie wanted to answer.

"Wyatt, can you take me home?" she finally asked. "…If I can even call it that anymore," she mumbled.

"Uh, yeah sure," he answered reluctantly before nodding. "I have a feeling that's where you really need to be anyway," the boy smiled.

_You have no idea, _Callie thought to herself as she watched Wyatt put the lighter back into its socket.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

* * *

Callie couldn't help but feel a sigh of relief coming on the second Wyatt pulled his car up in front of the Fosters' house. It still felt safe no matter her reasons for going back, and she couldn't help but be thankful that Stef's car wasn't in the driveway.

_She still had time._

_Probably not much, but it was something._

"Do you want me to come in with you?" Wyatt asked.

_I asked you to bring me here to get away from you,_ she thought to herself.

"No," Callie said casually instead. "Not now. Maybe you can come over later or something… I kinda want to sleep…"

_There was some truth to her last sentence._

"Yeah, sure… Call me when you wake up?"

She couldn't help but feel horrible for using Wyatt again. It was like kept using him and then throwing him away over and over. And still, he always came back for more… _Why would he stick with such a mess?_

"I will," Callie forced a smile. "And thank you…for being there. I know I can always count on you," she said honestly.

"Anytime," he smiled in return, before he tried to give her a kiss. But she turned away so that his lips fell on her cheek instead. She hadn't meant to do it. It was almost a reflex and she felt like crap immediately afterwards… but maybe it was for the best. She didn't want to get anyone else involved in her mess.

If she could keep him out of the fire, she would.

And with that thought she got out of the car and turned back to face him, "I'll see you," she lied.

_She couldn't break up with him now._

_Not yet._

* * *

Callie tried her best not to race toward the house after she closed Wyatt's passenger-side door, but her legs weren't agreeing with her. She didn't want to look obvious to Wyatt and she hoped that she hadn't.

But she had to get in.

This strange and sudden urge of desperation came over her. And if she didn't know any better, it was like the flames were already calling her name.

She needed to feel something,

Anything to get her mind off of what happened today. It was easier to look forward to something else, even if that something else was even more pain…a different kind of pain, something physical.

Physical pain was something that she was used to. Growing up in foster care and getting bounced around one foster home to another, she was used to getting tossed around by all kinds of people. She learned not to react though and it was only then that she was able to concentrate on something else…But Callie never thought that she'd long for this kind of pain so much, that she had to inflict it on herself in order to get it.

It was crazy, even to her.

Crazy that she'd prefer to physically hurt herself in order to draw out Robert's words that had already engrained themselves into a spot in her mind.

She knew it would only be a temporary fix, but any fix was better than dwelling on them.

And the second she opened the front door, she walked in and slammed it shut, making sure to lock the door in the process. Immediately, her eyes darted around the living room, searching for anything that might heat up. Panic filled her body as she ran into the kitchen and raced towards the drawers in the cabinets, throwing all of them open on a quest for a lighter. Her eyes gleamed and she let out a sigh of relief when she found the red outdoor lighter that Stef used to fire up the grill. She held it in her hands and wondered what would happen if she kept it with her?

_Would Stef or Lena would notice the lighter was gone?_

…_Probably._

_But for now, Callie didn't care. _

She instantly tried to turn it while holding the safety lock up and pushing down on the trigger-like button.

_Nothing._

_Again, she tried._

_Still nothing._

She furrowed her eyebrows and grunted in frustration as her breath started to quicken. She could feel her heart begin to race as she kept pressing down on the button in hopes for the smallest sight of fire but wasn't greeted by one.

Callie threw the lighter back into the drawer and searched for another one before closing it. She could feel her tears welling up in her eyes, as everything that happened at the fundraiser started to replay in her mind.

_Rita convincing her to give Robert a chance, _

_Her stupidly calling him her father on stage, _

_Sophia telling her that she destroyed the abandonment papers, _

_Robert telling her that he wouldn't resign them because of what she said… just taking away the small bit of hope she had left as if it didn't matter to him at all._

_And it didn't._

_But this was ultimately her fault._

She was the one that called him her father on stage in front of everyone…Jude, Stef, Lena, Robert, Sophia, Jill… She should've known what that would've done to all of them. And now she was being given the consequences, but she would've never imagined they'd be this extreme.

She wiped her tears away harshly with her right hand and glanced around the room again. Her eyes immediately paused at the stove.

_How stupid was she to miss something so big and obvious?_

* * *

Almost immediately, the teen ran over and twisted one of the knobs all the way to the right and watched in amazement at how high the flames got. She could feel the heat from where she was standing and she was finally able to let out the breath that she had been holding ever since she got inside of the house. Callie placed both of her palms in the air over the yellow and blue lights and it only took a few seconds for them to feel the burning sensation from the fire. And still then, she kept her hands in place allowing for the pain to consume her every thought. She turned them around, so that the flames were only aimed towards the back of her hands now, and she kept repeating the process over and over again every time the pain became to much for her to bear.

She wondered for a few seconds what it'd be like if she actually placed her hands directly into the fire, but she fought against it. From her experience, it would probably leave evidence and that wasn't what she wanted. Instead she kept her hands above the flame and kept shifting up her arm every time, so that the pain wouldn't become too much in one particular area. Gratefully, she wasn't crying anymore, but that was only because she had her eyes clenched so tight that they wouldn't allow room for tears.

It was relieving for her to concentrate on something else, even if it would only last a little while. When she finally had enough, she turned the knob off and watched as the flames disappeared.

Glancing down at her arms seemed different now. Her vision was slightly altered from the constant staring into the bright flames that she had just gotten done with. She could see that a pinkish color covered up and down her hands all the way to her elbow. And even though the fire was off and barely left a mark on her, she could still feel as if her arms were on fire….

She could still feel the flames intensifying...

Callie stared back at the stove again and glanced over all four of the tops, knowing that they'd all do the same thing. And out of curiosity, she wrapped her fingers around the metal that the fire had just been covering seconds before, expecting it to be hot but not realizing just how hot. At the excruciating pain, a whimper escaped her mouth and she released her palm from the black metal and turned it around so that she could see what she had done. The darkened lines were quite obvious and still burning, making her forget completely about the burns up and down her arms.

She quickly ran over toward the sink and turned on the knob for the cold water, pushing her palm over toward the stream. Through her mouth she was able to let out another deep breath as she felt the relief attempting to mask the pain.

But the sudden feeling of her cellphone vibrating threw her off completely. She used her left hand to shut off the water and dry them both and she wasn't surprised her right palm still felt warm to the touch. She reached into her pocked and glanced down at the number calling her, only to realize that it was Stef.

That's when she remembered that she did leave without saying a word to anyone.


	5. Chapter 5

_Alright, Callie. Get it together,_ she thought to herself. _Act normal and don't sound like you've been crying. Ignoring the call would only draw more attention and make Stef even more suspicious. _

"Hello?" she tried to answer as nonchalantly as she could, but why was it that her voice was disagreeing with her.

"Callie, it's Stef. Where are you? We've been looking all over for you?" she questioned in a curious but still calm tone.

"Oh, that's right…" the teen stopped to think, "I wasn't feeling very well so I asked Wyatt to pick me up and bring me ho— to your house. I'm sorry, I was going to tell you but then I couldn't find you and—"

"What's wrong? Are you sick?" Stef asked abruptly. The woman's heart was quickening in the background and she was almost positive that even Lena could hear it thumping from inside of her. She couldn't even understand why the sudden reaction came about, but it did nonetheless. And then an image unwillingly popped into her mind of suddenly seeing Callie in Sofia's place on the bathroom floor, only it was their bathroom at home. She knew that it was irrational but she couldn't overlook the shakiness in her daughter's voice on the other line. _Or was she imagining that too?_

"No," Callie responded quickly, almost too quickly to the blonde. "I was just a little dizzy and I wanted to lie down. I didn't want to lie down there so—"

"Uhuh. Did you eat anything? Want us to bring you something?" Stef asked, mainly just to have some excuse to tell her wife to get them to leave the fundraiser early. However, after everything that had just happened with Sophia, Stef realized she probably wouldn't need one.

"No, I'm fine. I promise," Callie answered as casually as possible. "I just want to lie down is all..."

"Okay," the blonde replied. "We'll be there as soon as we can."

"Mhm." And with that last mumble the line went dead.

* * *

Lena watched as her wife slowly hung up the phone and she could tell that the woman was pondering something in her mind. "She went home?"

"Yes, she did," Stef answered as if she was still thinking about something else.

"Oh," Lena started as she stared intently at the blonde. She knew that she would have to pull the information out of her. It was times like these that she hated her wife's stubbornness. "…Well, it's not like Callie to leave so abruptly. She knows how much this means to Rita and the other girls. She's not sick?"

"We'll have to check on her when we get home. She said she was feeling dizzy but just wanted to sleep it off…"

"Maybe she's coming down with something. Does she have a headache or a fever?"

"I don't know. I didn't even ask. I—I was too distracted by the…the shakiness in her voice. I think something's wrong," Stef answered hesitantly as she glanced up toward Lena.

"Something like what?"

"I don't know yet. But I just have this gut feeling that something is up with her, Lena… and I know you're probably thinking I might be projecting my feelings about what just happened with Sophia onto Callie but—"

"No," Lena stopped her mid-sentence. "I get it. I've already learned to trust your judgment when it comes to Callie after what happened the last time. We'll go now," Lena nodded. The truth was that she knew Callie wouldn't have just left without telling them if it wasn't serious, and she couldn't help but be worried too. It had only been a couple months since she last burned, and they made sure of it. But she wasn't going to be too quick to dismiss the sudden action, even if it really wasn't anything to be worried about

"Are you sure?" Stef asked.

Lena glanced over Stef's shoulder and noticed Rita and Mike talking to each other in the background, completely unaware of all that happened inside of the house with Sophia. In fact, practically everyone seemed to be so locked into their own conversations, she was almost positive they wouldn't even notice if they were gone. "Yes, I'm sure. After everything that just happened with Sophia, I think I need to be closer to Callie too… I keep thinking that I wasn't there for her the last time…"

Stef furrowed her eyebrows at her wife, trying to understand what she was referring to. And after a few seconds, she put two and two together. "You were there for her. We both were. You don't have to feel guilty over that. I told you to leave so that I could handle it, remember?"

"But I could've chose to stay. I could've dropped off the kids at school and come right back—"

"Love, we weren't even sure what we were dealing with," she interrupted.

"We had an idea," Lena reminded her. "…I know that I can't change it, but still."

Stef sighed out loud, "Well, maybe we're both getting a little ahead of ourselves for no reason. I'm sure she's fine. Maybe she's actually sick?"

"We should stop and get some Tylenol on the way home then. Come to think about it, we should probably get the kids before the ambulance comes. I don't want one of them telling Callie the news before we do."

Stef intertwined her fingers with Lena's and gave her a half-smile. "I don't know how we're going to explain what just happened to her at all… But maybe we don't have to? Right?" Stef asked skeptically.

"I think it'd be better if she heard it from us. She's going to find out sooner or later. And I'm sure you giving her sister CPR is going to get around. Not to mention she's probably going to want to visit her in the hospital."

"I think I liked you better when you were being irrational with me," Stef complained jokingly.

Lena leaned in and planted a kiss on her wife's forehead. "I love you too, honey," she smiled.

* * *

It had taken only a few minutes for Callie to clean the wound on her hand and this time she knew how.

_And it was bad_, she noticed. But she hoped that she could hide it well.

_She branded her palm of all places._

_Her right palm._

_The one she did everything with. How could she be so stupid? Of course the stovetop was hot._

_Really hot._

But she made sure to wipe her tears away and throw eye drops into both of her eyes to combat the redness. By the time she was able to find a cardigan to throw over her red arms and come back into the bathroom, the redness in her eyes had suddenly vanished. She took a deep breath and studied her reflection in the mirror and tried to put on the best poker face she could. But the sudden lie-filled mask just made her want to cry even more.

_No, Callie. Do not pity yourself_, her inner voice screamed at her._ That would only make things worse and you need to accept the cards you've been dealt. You don't have to like it. Just accept it. You've already been doing it for 16 years, so what's another two?_

She took another deep breath and walked toward her _would've been_ bedroom sunk onto her _temporary_ bed. She buried her body beneath the comforter and for the first time in months she accepted that things would be changing soon. "Just let things happen," she whispered to herself before she closed her eyes and drifted off into a numbing sleep.

* * *

"Callie?" She heard her name being called faintly. But the covers were over her body so she closed her eyes again, in an attempt to pretend she was still sleeping. _Had she even fallen asleep at all?_ she felt like a total of two seconds since she closed them. She was so tired and she didn't know why. "Callie?" she heard the voice again and this time it became completely clear to her exactly whose voice it was.

At that moment, she felt someone sink down on her bed in a sitting position and then felt the comforter being pulled off of her head. "Are you okay?" Brandon asked.

"Mhm," she responded groggily. "I think I was sleeping," she admitted as she rubbed her eye awake. "What are you doing here? Where's…"

"Oh, I had Lou drop me off. Everyone else stayed at your dad's house."

"Did…" Callie paused as she tried to think of the right way to phrase the question. "You didn't tell them did you?"

"What? About the kiss?" Brandon chuckled. "No, I thought I'd leave that for you to tell," he joked.

"No," Callie suddenly remembered the kiss and sat up straight in her bed. "I meant, about Robert?"

"No, I didn't. That's your information to tell. Not mine… " He started playing with his fingers and it was obvious that he felt uncomfortable about the situation. "But we can tell them together, if you want me to be there with you… Or you don't have to tell them at all until you're ready. It's ultimately your choice…"

_Nothing is ever my choice,_ Callie wanted to tell him, but that would only mean fighting what was bound to happen anyway.

And she was tired of fighting.

"Thank you, Brandon," Callie answered honestly. "For being here. Even if it's just for a little while…"

"Don't say that," he voice came out stern, at the thought of losing her. "Moms will fight for you, you know that. You can still become part of this family."

"I don't want to fight everything anymore. It will just turn into chaos and it will be the same ending no matter what," the teen forced a smile. "I know how these things work. Look at what happened with you and Vico. He had money and he walked—"

"This is not the same thing, Callie."

"Isn't it? He hurt you and he walked… Killed your dream as if it didn't matter to him one bit, and he's perfectly fine. You're still left paying the price for his actions," Callie paused as she reached for his wrist and ran her fingers over it. "Only for me it's worse, because Robert has all the power in the world to take me away from here. Money, the law… And I am his daughter."

"Not if you don't want to be."

"Try telling him that," Callie cracked a smile.

"Fine, I will," Brandon answered confidently.

"I was joking," she informed him.

"I wasn't."

Callie shook her head slightly, "Brandon, I love you all but I don't want to lose you in this. It's not worth it."

Brandon raised his fingers to Callie's cheek and allowed his thumb to trace over her face. "You are worth it. You're worth fighting for… in this battle and a hundred more. I love you. You do know that right? We all do—"

That was all she needed to hear before she fiercely pressed her lips against his, almost instinctively. And as much as she wanted to pull away from his touch, she wanted even more to keep going. Brandon wasn't helping anything either by the way he kissed her back just as fiercely and began caressing her and moving his hands up and down her body like he did at Daphne's apartment. _Stop_, a small voice whispered in her mind. _He's supposed to be your brother. You're going to ruin the last shot you have of having a real family._

She removed her lips from his and allowed her body to sink back onto the bed, with Brandon's following directly over hers, their breaths quickening from the heat of the moment.

_Just let it happen_, she reminded herself. _This isn't your family anymore. _

_It never was._

And with that thought, she ruffled her fingers through his hair and allowed his lips to travel over towards her ear and then to her neck…

To be continued…

* * *

**A/N: Again, this is NOT A BRALLIE. Although I am a Brallie shipper, my fics don't really revolve around them. I know it may look like it's a Brallie to some of you but it's definitely not. Things will get clearer in future chapters so I need you all to bear with me and chill. Callie's obviously not herself at the moment.**

**But anyway, any predictions on what's going to happen next? **


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

* * *

Mariana got out of the car first and felt her cellphone vibrate in her pocket. She took it out and looked at the screen. "Is it okay if I go to the movies with Matt tonight?" she asked politely.

Stef glanced over to Lena before answering, "Yeah, as long as you're home before curfew," she concluded as both women got out of the car and closed the car door.

"Of course," Mariana replied as she began typing away on her iPhone.

"Can I go over to Hayley's?" Jesus asked immediately afterwards.

"Are Hayley's parents going to be there?" Lena questioned.

Jesus shrugged his shoulders in response and stared at his mothers almost pleadingly.

"Well you better find out," Lena answered.

Stef laughed, "Jesus, what happened to taking some time for yourself?"

"I did. I didn't ditch the fundraiser for her."

Stef took a deep breath and held in her opinion about her son's behavior. But in all honesty, she couldn't make a clear distinction on which one of them was clingier, Jesus or Hayley.

"Why don't you and Hayley go to the movies with your sister and Matt?" Lena proposed. Mariana's face fell falt.

Stef laughed again, because she realized that she hadn't mentioned the argument Mariana and Hayley had on their last double date.

"Because I don't want drama."

Mariana chuckled, "And you're going out with Hayley?" she asked sarcastically.

"Callaté," Jesus replied in a hasty tone.

"Hey!" Stef argued. "Watch the way you talk to your sister, young man," she eyed him sternly. "And if either of you want to go anywhere, I suggest you both start trying to get along. Now, you can start doing that by helping out with the bags," she pointed to the back of the car, "and helping mama in the kitchen with dinner. Okay. Come on, let's go."

Jude tried to hide his own smile as he got out of the car and stood beside Lena who handed him the keys, "Can you open the door for us, Bud."

"Sure," he answered as he took the keys and walked toward the porch.

Jesus stared at the blonde, "That's not fair. Brandon got to go out with Lou, and you didn't make him do anything. The golden-boy always gets to do whatever he wants," Jesus argued. Mariana didn't say anything but she actually agreed with her brother for once.

"You know that's not true," Stef sighed as she opened the trunk of her car and watch as Jesus grabbed a bunch of bags while shaking his head in defiance.

"Sure," he finished as he walked away without looking up at either woman.

Mariana grabbed a few bags to and followed her brother in complete silence as well.

Stef glanced over to her wife, "You don't think that's true do you?"

"No, we don't let Brandon do whatever he wants," Lena answered with certainty.

"Not that. But… Do you think I really treat B differently compared to the other kids?"

"Not at all. If Brandon were here, you'd make him help out too. Jesus is just in a bad mood. He'll get over it."

"Well, I think Mariana might've felt the same way," she replied as she watched both kids walk inside of the house, one after the other.

Lena placed her hand on her wife's arm, "They'll be fine. I'm sure. We've been through this so many times with them," she smiled in an attempt to lighten Stef's mood, but it didn't work.

"Well, it never stops hurting though," Stef complained as she grabbed a few more bags and Lena sighed before grabbing the rest.

* * *

Brandon couldn't help but become confused by the way Callie was behaving. She was different, he was sure of it. Her kisses were different and so were her movements. She seemed almost desperate in a way now. "Wait," he took his lips off of hers. "Are you sure about this?" he asked again. The last thing he wanted to do was take advantage of her if she was in a vulnerable position.

"What?" she asked in confusion. "I thought this was what you wanted? If you want to stop, we can stop," she answered casually, but Brandon could tell that she seemed almost hurt by his uncertainty by the way she withdrew eye contact and tried to sit up.

"No, it's not that," he said as he grabbed her hand into his. "I mean, I love you—"

"Then, what's the problem?" she interrupted with a soft smile.

She needed to feel good about something, even if it was a lie. If she couldn't believe that her and Brandon were meant to be together, then _what else was there for her to believe in?_

_There was nothing_.

And in her mind, _if there was nothing… she was nothing._

"There's no problem," he mumbled as he let himself get drawn into her eyes that were gleaming with sadness at that moment.

"Okay, then," Callie forced a smile again, as she watched him bring his face in closer and kiss her. She immediately reached for his shirt and tried to lift it off of him. And when he realized what Callie was trying to do, he took his lips off of hers and finished taking his shirt off for her, before he leaned in again to kiss her again. Brandon lifted up her dress with one hand and tried to take her sweater off with the other, but Callie moved his hand away from her arm, "No, I want to leave it on," she answered quickly at the thought of him seeing her burns. She wasn't sure if her arms were still red, but she wouldn't take the chance of having him _see_ exactly how _pathetic she really was._

Brandon looked at her strangely but still nodded with understanding as he leaned in again and brought their bodies even closer. And at the small knock on her bedroom door, they both froze in place. "Callie?" they heard a voice say as they quietly listened to the doorknob twisting open. Quickly, they parted lips and bodies, and Brandon immediately got up from Callie's bed and got into a standing position on the floor. But by the time he turned around, he realized that it was already too late…


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

* * *

The Walgreens bag that held the thermometer and a box of Tylenol immediately dropped from Stef's grip the second she entered Callie's bedroom. "HEY! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!" she snapped, causing both teens to slightly jump at the sudden loudness of the woman's voice. Callie quickly lowered her dress to cover herself more, while Brandon bent over to pick up his shirt from the ground. The door rapidly slammed shut and Stef stood it with her arms crossed as she shook her head in disbelief.

And although Callie still had her cardigan and her dress on, she still reached for the covers from her bed to bring them up closer toward her chest. She was feeling even more exposed than she really was, understandably. She barely glanced at the blonde and instead kept her eyes focused on the pattern on her comforter, while Brandon awkwardly threw on his shirt, although his nerves slowed him down.

"You two have got to be kidding me," she said in a harsh tone. At this point she didn't care about being rational.

"Mom—" Brandon started to defend but Stef wasn't in the mood to listen to his explanation. Nothing he could say would make her feel any better about this.

"Save it, Brandon!" his mother stopped him and held up her hand, so that he knew not to keep going. "What…" Stef huffed as she tried to figure out what to say, but her frustration was jumbling her thoughts all together at once, "Why…How could you do this?" she yelled and made sure to glance back and forth and both of them. "Both of you…both of you promised that nothing was going on…" her eyes glared more at Brandon for some reason, partly because it was easier for her to blame her own son than it was to blame Callie.

"Nothing was going on," Brandon defended. "It just—"

"DON'T YOU DARE LIE TO ME, BRANDON! This was NOT NOTHING!" she pointed her finger at both of them and tried her best not to lose it, but she could feel her anger boiling up insider her even more and more as every second passed that they were all in Callie and Mariana's room. She needed her wife here to help her keep it together. There was no way in hell that she could deal with all of this on her own.

Brandon took in a deep breath and turned to face Callie, who by now had tears in her eyes but she still remained silent.

"LENA!" Stef yelled for her wife, as she opened the bedroom door slightly from fear that her other kids would hear if they hadn't already. "LENA!"

"Come on, mom! Do you really have to tell her now… right now?" Brandon asked as he quickly put on his shoes.

"You are no in a position to be asking me for anything right now, so DON'T START WITH ME, B!"

Callie looked sadly at him and for once she felt remorse for something she had done today. She wanted this to happen but she didn't want everything to unravel like this. She didn't want to get Brandon in trouble.

She had a plan. It wasn't carefully thought out, but she knew that she was going to tell both Stef and Lena that this wasn't going to work out, on her terms. The fact that Stef had walked in on them just made her feel even disgusted with herself and she couldn't understand why.

Sure, it was the path that she had chosen or at least… that was what she was trying to convince herself. But she felt horrible for pulling Brandon into her mess. He didn't deserve it. And had Stef not been right there staring at both of them, she would've apologized.

* * *

Within seconds, Stef could hear the door creak open from behind her as Lena poked her head inside. "Hey," she smiled as she made her way into the room, but her smile quickly faded as she saw that Brandon was in the room with the two of them. "What's…what's going on here?" she asked in confusion as she stared at her wife, waiting for an answer.

Stef's mouth tensed and her lips pressed together as she shook her head slightly at Lena and breathed in roughly from her nose. Lena's eyes widened and all it took was one look at Callie, who was now completely facing away from all of them and looking at the wall with the sheets still pulled up to her chest.

Lena took in a deep breath, herself, and tried to keep her own confusion and anger in check, since it was obvious from her wife's yelling that someone had to. "Okay…" she started as she looked from Callie towards Brandon, who seemed to be the only alert one besides her wife, "Brandon, what' going on?" she asked as she crossed her arms over her chest out of awkwardness, but quickly let them down so that she could grab onto Stef's hand.

"Callie and I… We were just talking," Brandon started and Stef let out a hissing sound, that neither of them chose to ignore. "WE WERE just talking," Brandon raised his voice a little, "and… one thing led to another… We didn't mean for this to happen—"

"You didn't mean for me to walk in and catch you? Or you didn't mean to make out practically naked on Callie's bed?" Stef retorted with anger evident in her voice.

"Oh wow!" Lena's eyes widened even more and she looked away from Brandon toward Callie and could see that she was crying even more now.

"No! Look, I know that you're mad about what you saw, but I'm just so sick of pretending in front of you two."

"Brandon," Callie tried to stop him as she wiped away a tear that managed to fall down her cheek.

"No!" Brandon fought back. "We shouldn't have to lie about this. It's not fair. I'm so sick of pretending to be someone else in front of them, someone else in front of you," he gestured towards Callie and turned back to face his mothers. "…All either of you have told me since you got together was that you can't control who you fall in love with. Mom, I didn't understand that at first but how is it that when I finally do, you don't? It doesn't make any sense! Why are we the ones who are wrong, because we're fighting for the people who we love? Both of you are such hypocrites!"

Stef stared at her son and she couldn't help but feel anger towards him and it just kept pending up by the second. To her, it was like both of them were throwing away Callie's last chance to be a part of their family, all because of their ignorance and hormones. "You two aren't in love," Stef stated as if it were a fact. "B, don't be so stupid as to tear this family apart because you don't know how to control yourself!"

_This family is already torn apart_, Callie thought to herself.

"But we are," she said when she finally found her voice. "Stef, I do love him," she answered without a doubt. The teen's eyes showed determination even though they were also filled with hurt.

_But she was determined. _

_She was determined to say and do everything she had to, to make the decision as painless as possible. _

_In her mind, it was easier to let them go like this. The decision would be that much uncomplicated, if they hated her for choosing him over them. It was obvious now._

"Callie," Stef stopped her. "You don't mean that," she argued.

"I do," Callie nodded.

"No," Stef said sternly as she tried to take a step closer toward the girl to continue their conversation, but Lena grabbed onto her arm to stop her.

"Brandon," Lena turned toward him. "Please, go to your room. I'll be there in a sec."

Brandon glanced at Callie, and then back toward his moms as if he wanted to argue. But after looking at his mother's face, he thought it'd be better not to. Instead he hissed before he got a chance to walk out.

"Callie, you stay put. We'll be right back," Lena informed her as she tried to grab Stef's hand but the woman remained stiff as if she didn't want to go. "Honey, please," Lena begged as she stared into her wife's eyes. They would have to talk to them both soon, but Lena knew that Stef had to calm down some or else they would both shut down, especially Callie.

Stef took in a deep breath and glanced toward the girl, "Don't move," she warned before she slowly followed her wife out of the room.

To be continued…

* * *

**A/N: Okay guys, I'm in serious need of a beta. (Someone who is really good at grammar and could help me out with proofreading and maybe even adding more to (one or some of my stories). You don't have to be an actual "registered beta reader." I just need someone to help me edit them so if you're interested, pleaseeee pm me. I will send you my chapters via pm, email, or the docx thing that's on here, whichever you prefer. And I will gladly give you credit for the re-editing etc. You don't even have to be a writer so this is pretty much open to all of my readers out there. **

**Again, this is NOT a Brallie.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

* * *

Lena closed their bedroom door and looked up at her wife who seemed to be just as dumbfounded as she was.

"I don't understand this, Lena. It makes no sense," Stef began to rant as she shook her head slowly from side to side. "What the hell are they thinking?" she voiced angrily.

"I don't know," Lena answered truthfully. "Maybe we missed something…"

"No," Stef said sternly. "No," she repeated, "They _both_ told us that it was over between them. They _both_ acted as if things were fine. I mean, what did they expect to happen when we adopted her, huh? Were they just going to continue…_that_!" she practically yelled as she pointed in the direction of Callie's room, referring to the make-out session she had to witness. "Because _that_ was not going to happen. Not in this house."

"Stef, please lower your voice and calm down," Lena begged.

"How—" Stef stopped herself, not even wanting to finish her question. She couldn't understand how her wife expected her to calm down when she felt as if her entire family was threatening to be ripped apart yet again.

"Stef, listen to me. I am just as upset as you are about this. I feel betrayed by both of them too. But we can't let our feelings overpower our judgment. _Something_ is obviously going on between them and we need to figure out what it is before we frighten them both. We're not going to get the truth out of them like that and you know it too."

"So what do you want me to do, Lena? You want me to tell them that this is okay? That they can date and we don't _have_ to adopt Callie? I wont do that," Stef replied sternly.

"Honey, that's not what I want either. You know that I want to adopt her just as much as you do, and I would like nothing more than to put a stop to…whatever it is that _this_ is. But we can't force them to stop having feelings for each other, Stef. If they are serious about this, and I'm not sure that they are, but if that's what it comes down to, then we need to accept it. We already tried it the other way, and it hasn't worked.

"I'm just… so mad right now," Stef voiced honestly.

"You're not alone in that one… I am too." Lena clenched her lips tightly for a second before she continued, "But I also don't want our anger to scare Callie into making this decision or even a different one."

"What? You think she'll go back to burning again?" Stef asked just as she came to the realization.

"Yes, that's one possibility. I mean, I know she hasn't done it for a few months but… I don't really think she's been tempted. And I don't want all of this to trigger her either; if we're taking away something she really wants… Or not even that, but what if she's already decided to move in with Robert."

"Well, if she chooses Brandon over us, then she's going to have to… I hate myself for saying it, but I don't feel comfortable with the idea of walking in on them like that…again." Stef looked at her wife and could tell by her silence that she agreed with her. "…You don't think that she's already thought about that have you? That maybe she planned this, because she wants to be with Brandon?" the blonde questioned in panicked voice.

"I don't know… but it's a possibility. We can't ignore the fact that she did call him her father just a few hours ago, and she did spend the night there yesterday. Maybe they talked and—"

"Lena, she hardly even knows him," Stef interrupted. "She can't possibly be thinking that she could just—"

"I don't know what she's thinking. That's why both of us need to calm down and talk to them… And I think separately would be best, because I don't want one to influence the other."

"Fine, okay," Stef said unenergetically. "I will talk to B."

"No way," Lena replied sternly. "I'll talk to him." The blonde squinted her face at Lena. "Stef, I know you don't realize it, but you're too hard on him. I don't want to have to break up a yelling-match while I'm talking to Callie. And whether I like it or not, I think you'll have more leverage with her. You and I both know that you'd have a better chance at getting the truth out of her than I would."

"Fine," the blonde answered before she let out a deep sigh and walked out of the room.

"Stef," Lena warned.

"I'm calm," Stef informed her.

* * *

Lena knocked lightly on Brandon's door before she walked in. Immediately, she noticed Brandon laying flat on his bed with his phone in his hands. "Hey," she tried to sound casual, regardless of the fact that a billion thoughts were running through her mind at once; none of them good. Brandon just stared up at her and then back toward his phone, as if he were waiting for something. "Who are you texting?" Lena questioned in an un-accusing tone even though she already had a feeling she knew exactly who.

"No one," the teen answered flatly as he stared at his mom.

Lena nodded her head understandably since she already expected a negative reaction. "Okay…" she started as she walked over toward the edge of the bed and sat down.

After a few seconds, Brandon sat up a little and glanced at the phone again before peering towards Lena, "You know that there's nothing you can say to Callie or I that can get us to change our minds right?"

"That's not what I'm trying to do, Brandon," she informed him. "I'm just…trying to understand what's going on. What changed?" Brandon rolled his eyes and looked over toward his piano in an effort to distract himself from his mother's questions. "You two knew what was going to happen in a couple weeks. So why would you hide it from us?"

"We didn't hide it from you," the teen stated matter-of-factly as if the woman had it all wrong. "You two made your choice clear from the beginning that you didn't want us to be together. And we tried to fight how we felt about each other for as long as we could… I started seeing Lou… She started seeing Wyatt. We didn't sit at the same lunch table. I stopped teaching her how to play the guitar. But it didn't work…"

"What do you mean it didn't work, Brandon… You have to give me more than that," Lena told him. It wasn't fair to her or Stef to be given half-ass answers at this point. They were way over that.

"She changed her mind," he said. "…And it's not like she was ever going to be a part of this family anyway, so I don't know why you and mom are making it out to be my fault. This is what _both of us_ want. And I'm sorry if you two are hurt by it but—"

"Wait a minute," Lena put her hand up to stop her son from continuing. "What do you mean, she was never going to be a part of this family? Did she tell you that?"

"No."

"Then, what you do mean by that?" Lena inquired.

To be continued…

**Next Chapter: Some Stef/Callie and probably more. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

* * *

Callie stared at her phone's screen and kept rereading the texts over and over.

**Callie: **_I'm sorry. I didn't mean to drag you into this._

**Brandon: **_Don't worry about it. I already told you that you were worth it and I meant it. I don't regret one second of it and you shouldn't either._

But Callie _did_ regret it deep down. _All of it._

Yes, she knew it was probably for the best but… _was she using him like she used Wyatt today? Wasn't Brandon just doing the same thing? Picking her up from this life and dropping her off into another?_ She turned Wyatt away the very second they stepped in front of their house… _Did that mean she was going to do the same thing all over again with Brandon?_

…_No. This was done for an entirely different reason, Callie, remember? _

_You did this because he was the only thing you had left from this family that you could keep. _

_You did this because it was the only good and possible outcome that could come from Robert's betrayal. _

_Not because you were using him._

And with that last thought, Callie grabbed her last shirt from Mariana's closet. _This isn't my future, _she reminded herself again, before she felt a soft knock on the door. Immediately, she wiped away her tears that had suddenly clouded her vision of her surroundings. The teen quickly walked over toward the nightstand and dropped the cellphone on top of it, while Stef made her way inside of the room.

"Whoa, wait a second, Callie. What are you doing?" the woman asked as she caught Callie attempting to fill her duffle bag, which was already half-way packed with clothes. And it would stay that way too, since Stef and Lena had bought her new clothes that she wouldn't feel comfortable taking with her. It felt like stealing in a way, despite the fact that the girl had stupidly thrown out most of her old ones, the second she felt comfortable enough to believe that she was staying. Her bag of belongings looked somewhat pitiful now, but she was thinking that there was always a good thing out of a bad one.

_It wouldn't take long to finish stuffing it._

"What does it look like?" Callie answered in a flattened and sarcastic tone. _Remain hard. Not matter what,_ she coached herself as she kept her gaze focused on her bag.

Stef stood there, staring back at the teen with both shock and confusion written all over her face. She hadn't expected to see Callie so determined and avoidant as she was in that moment. "Callie?" she called her in an attempt to start the conversation they were both going to have to have.

The teen knelt down to grab her other pair of converse sneakers and tossed them into the bag before answering the woman. "What?" she questioned casually. And still she kept her attention on the bag while scanning the room for anything else she might've missed.

Stef had never seen the teen look so defensive, since the time she caught her with a ton of band-aid wrappers and rubbing alcohol in the bathroom. She wasn't sure what to do at this point, but she didn't want to upset her again or have a repeat of that dreadful day. So the blonde took a deep breath before walking over and taking a seat on the edge of Callie's bed, making sure to sit right beside the duffel bag. That way, she knew the girl wouldn't have any other choice but to look at her if she was going to focus on packing.

Callie glanced over at the older woman's lap and tried everything she could not to stare Stef in the eye. She was afraid it would make everything more difficult. And even now, she couldn't understand why the woman was trying so hard. _Couldn't she see just how disgusting she really was? If the burning wasn't enough to convince her the last time, then the fact should've seemed all the more obvious when she walked in on her son and "supposed" daughter making out in her own house._

For a while Stef didn't respond at all, with the hopes that Callie would actually stare her in the eye and give her that attention that she deserved. But after Callie continued to pull her socks out of her drawer, Stef couldn't take it. "Callie, look at me…Can you just tell me what you're thinking right now. Help me understand how this happened. Don't you think I deserve that at least?" Stef begged.

Callie threw a few pairs socks into her bag and zipped it up before looking back the woman she had once referred to as her mom.

* * *

And it all became even _clearer_ to her.

Glancing at the woman didn't make her feel remorse for what happened. It once again, made her realize that she was doing the right thing. She saw the hurt in Stef's eyes and made it easier for her, knowing that after today she would never have to place that feeling in the woman's eyes again. After today, they would all slowly forget about her. And _that_ was what made Callie's expression harden even more.

"Stef, I don't know what else to tell you that Brandon hasn't already said a few minutes ago. I love him… And I'm sorry but I can't be your daughter just because you want me to be… Things are going to be better this way."

Stef tried so hard to keep her emotions in check but she needed to know the truth. "Is that how you feel? That I'm forcing this family on you? …Because Callie, I gotta tell you, I'm confused as hell about all of this… When you left Girls United, _you_ came back here. _You_ were the one that let us believe things were over between the two of you… _You_ were even going to let us adopt you when we adopted Jude…_You_ were the one that said you wanted to find Robert, because _you_ wanted to be adopted and now…_now_ you're saying that you feel that I've forced this family on you?"

"You adopted Jude!" Callie snapped and lowered her voice the second she realized that she was getting out of hand. "…_That_ alone made me feel like I had no choice but to come back. No, you didn't force me to come back here. I did it on my own because I was afraid of losing my brother, and I was afraid of losing Brandon. And… I knew about Robert Quinn before that day at the courthouse. I found my original birth certificate years ago while I was going through my mother's things. So I already knew that Jude and I didn't have the same father. _That's_ how I knew that you wouldn't be able to adopt me with Jude, so I wasn't worried about any of that. I'm sorry about lying to you and to Lena. And both of you have every right to hate me for it, but I couldn't lose Brandon…It was _him_ I really came back for. It was always him…" Callie finished ranting off the lies as truths. And even after telling them, she kept telling herself that if she kept repeating them in her mind, she might even believe them one day herself.

Stef stared at Callie and for once she wasn't sure whom it was she was sitting in front of any more. _Could the reason she had burned herself when she had come back from Helen's have been about Brandon too? Was everything that had happened since she got there just been a huge lie?_ She tried searching for any sign of deception from Callie but the teen remained still with conviction and harder than ever before. Stef finally opened her mouth slightly to say something but she couldn't handle any more disclosure from Callie. _Not now. Not after what she just had to hear._

Instead, she closed her eyes and stared at the wall for a few seconds before getting up quickly from the teens bed and walking out of the room, letting the door shut slowly behind her.

With the click of the door closing, Callie instinctively allowed the tears to finally spill from her eyes. She hated seeing the look of betrayal from Stef's face and _she_ was the one who put it there. This was supposed to make things easier for her, but instead it felt as if she was just making a mess of things in an effort to clean it back up.

When all of this began, Callie felt like a puppet being manipulated by Robert to try and make all of this work, because she had no other choice. He was pulling the strings and causing for her to make all of these decisions by ripping her out of the safety net that she had just been in.

But now, it was as if he wasn't standing above the puppet doing the tugging any more.

_She was._

_She_ said those words to Stef.

Not Robert.

_She_ made the choice to throw herself at Brandon and to tell all of those lies.

_She_ did it to hurt them because _she_ felt hurt.

And despite wanting to take it back more than anything right now, she knew that she deserved to live with the repercussions. Apologizing wouldn't change anything. If Robert apologized and still refused to sign the papers, she wouldn't feel any different about any of it.

She would still hate him for letting her burn in the fire.

Callie reached for the blue duffel bag and threw it over her shoulders before making her way down the stairs and lifting her hand for the doorknob...


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

* * *

"So you're just going to leave me again?" a voice asked from the right of Callie. The teen didn't have to turn around to see whose voice it was. She kept her hand focused on the doorknob so that she wouldn't have to look her brother in the eye, as she stood there in silence. "Is that what you think is going to happen? You get to mess everything up again and I have to sit here and blame myself for not being able to stop you?"

"Jude," she tries to start but the boy quickly interrupts.

"No. If you leave this time it's because _you_ wanted to. Not because you were _trying to save me_ or because _you think that you don't belong here_. It will be because _you _chose to do it… So go right ahead. What's stopping you Callie? Leave!" Jude yelled as he pushed Callie out of the way to hold open the front door himself. "Well what are you waiting for!? Run away again!"

Callie just stood there looking back at her little brother and could see his anger-filled eyes glaring at her with both disgust and hate. She despised the thought of having her brother be this upset with her, but rather than show that she nodded her head understandably.

"What's going on?" Mariana's voice was heard by both siblings but neither chose to glance in her direction. And when she saw the bag over Callie's shoulder, the teen came to the conclusion herself. "You're just going to bolt again?" she asked in a saddened voice. "After all we've done for you? You can really just leave?"

"It's what she does best!" Jude spat. "Don't feel bad, Mariana. It's just Callie being Callie. Only this time, she can't blame anyone else for walking out the door, and I wont be the one to cry," he continued as he threw the door open even wider and stomped up the stairs to his bedroom.

"Jude!" Mariana called after him, before she turned around to stare at Callie. "Why did you even come back if you just were going to leave again?" the teen questioned through saddened eyes.

"Mariana, it's complicated," the girl starts to explain. "It's not like I even have a choice."

"You always have a choice," Mariana interrupted in a stern voice. "…All you have to do is choose to stay," she pleaded as she stared at Callie, who slowly shook her head with defiance. "…But you can't do that, can you?"

"Mariana," Callie tried to explain.

"No, that's fine," she nodded and glanced down a the ground before she looked back up at Callie, "But if you leave, I don't want you to come back. It's not healthy for Jude to be put through this over and over again. And I thought that at least _he_ would be your first priority. Shows you how wrong you could be," she retorted before she went up the stairs to console _her_ brother.

Callie looked back outside and saw that the sun was slowly fading and she couldn't believe how tempting it was to just run out of the house. If she did, she wasn't sure where she would go anyway. It made sense to go to Robert's to some extent, but she knew she could never bring herself to go back there. She didn't think she could handle seeing his face at all and not being repulsed anymore.

The teen took a few steps closer and stared at the walkway in desperation. Part of her was screaming to just run but the other couldn't escape Jude's words. _If you leave this time it's because you wanted to._

And before she knew it, she found herself turning around and racing toward the kitchen. When she lifted her head all the way up, she noticed Jesus reaching into the cupboard for a box of Oreos. It was obvious to her that there was no way she could use the stove so she quickly began pulling open all of the drawers in search for something to use.

"What was all that yelling?" Jesus asked.

Callie shook her head and answered a simple, "I don't know" before grabbing an item from one of the drawers and storming out into the backyard.

* * *

Once the girl was outside she ran towards the tree to hide behind it before she let her body drop onto the ground. With her back leaning against the wood and her legs lying straight in front of her, she lifted her hand and stared at the matchbox lying on top of her already burned palm.

Callie was immediately distracted by the red background and the black bold lettering that read "Safety Matches" on the box. It was like a sign already that was calling her name.

_The easy way out that she had been looking for ever since Robert screwed everything up._

_She knew that it wouldn't make all of her thoughts disappear forever…_

_But she also knew that it would be able to calm her down. _

_The heat always did._

_How many matches would I have to use in a lifetime?_ she questioned herself as she pulled open the small cardboard drawer and stared at the 60 wooden pieces of relief.

_This isn't normal, she thought to herself. _

_Most people see fire and run._

_Why was I reaching into the box and pulling one out in total admiration? _

Callie put her index finger on the red tip and slid it hard across the rough surface of the box. Her finger moved away instinctively and she held the match horizontally as she stared at the fire. It wasn't like the lighter she had once had before, where all she had to do was take her finger off the button to stop it. And it also had an awful burning smell, but she knew one day she would long for it after a few more attempts.

And without even taking another second to think about anything else she lifted her dress a little so that it wouldn't catch on fire and released the match from her hand, watching it drop onto her right knee.

And of course the pain was difficult to bear, but she didn't move it out of the way immediately as most people would. Instead, she closed her eyes and allowed her fingers to clench onto the grass, focusing solely on the pain that the fire was bringing to her knee, rather than everything she had just done to hurt her family.

When she finally opened her mouth to take in a deep breath, she allowed her hand to push away the tiny wooded stick and let it fall onto the grass. She glanced over to her limb and tried to see what she had done, but the shadow of the tree and the darkness of the night wouldn't allow for it.

All that Callie wanted to focus on was the scars and the pain she had just endured… but her mind kept darting back to Stef's face… then to Jude's… and then to Mariana's…

She realized that she wanted to punish herself for what she had said to them and not just forget about everything.

And this time, the teen grabbed three matchsticks from the box and slid them across the matchbox…


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: This story will be coming to an end soon. It will most likely be 15 chapters (like Burned was) so I thought I should warn you.**

* * *

**Chapter 11**

* * *

Lena walked into Callie's bedroom after her informative yet difficult talk with Brandon. It was obvious to her what the girl was doing.

_She wanted to stay there with them but Robert is refusing to sign the papers. _

_She misplaced her focus on Brandon instead as if he were the only reasonable option and tried to detach herself from the rest of them._

_Did she really have no faith in them?_ Lena wondered. She knew that Callie had a hard time trusting them in the beginning but she also thought that they had done enough to gain her trust. _What did she miss?_

The woman's eyebrows furrowed when she saw the empty and quiet bedroom.

"Callie?" she called as she walked out and saw Mariana going into Jude's room.

"Is everything okay?" the woman asked in a worried tone but wasn't given a reply, aside from the door closing in her face. Lena sighed but thought better not to talk to them just yet until she talked with Callie and her wife.

* * *

When Lena opened the door to her bedroom, she noticed Stef, who perked her head up at the sound of the creaking. She couldn't read the woman's face at first, which scared her.

_She could always read Stef. _

"Stef, what's going on? Where's Callie?" she questioned as she glanced around all of the corners of the room and even into the bathroom.

Stef shook her head slightly, "How could we be so stupid?" she asked. Her voice came out raspy from all of the crying she had just done while she was alone. "We should've known this would happen."

Lena sighed, "Honey, it's not what it looks like."

Stef responded with a short fake-laugh, "Lena, we were wrong about Callie. I mean, here we were, thinking that she wanted to be adopted into this family and she had a different agenda the entire time. I just… I don't understand how she could just do this to us. It doesn't m—"

"Callie doesn't have feelings for Brandon," Lena assured her wife.

"Oh, did Brandon tell you that?" Stef asked sarcastically. "Because I would think that he would try to save their asses just when push comes to shove."

"There's more to the story than that."

"No, Lena. You did not witness what went on in that room. Callie has feelings for Brandon. That's why she came back here from Girls United. And here we were thinking that we were all on the same page. We thought she was going to get adopted in a couple weeks, but we ended up looking like complete fools. And Callie knew all along that she wasn't. She planned this."

"She didn't plan anything. Whatever she told you is a lie, Stef."

"Lena. Callie. Knew. About. Robert… Before we even thought she did. She let us believe that she had no idea Donald wasn't her father. She found her real birth certificate years ago. The problems at the court weren't a surprise for her... She played us. The entire time she was just—"

"Stef!" Lena yelled in order to capture her wife's attention and keep her from rambling. She leaned down on the floor in front of the bed where the blonde was sitting and grabbed the woman's trembling hands in her own to calm her down. "It's Robert. He told Callie that he wasn't going to sign the papers."

* * *

Stef's face froze but the lines on her forehead depicted confusion. "What are you talking about?" she asked almost emotionless. _There was no way in hell that she was going to be fooled again by getting her hopes up._ She remained still as she stared back at her wife, waiting for an answer.

Lena took a deep breath when she saw the resilience in her wife's demeanor. "I just spoke with Brandon. They weren't sneaking around behind our back, Stef. In fact… all of this started when Robert told Callie that he wasn't going to sign the papers at the fundraiser... Apparently he lied to her about signing them. Or that's the only reason I can think of… When she found out, Brandon said he was the first person who saw her after that. He told me that she wasn't making any sense, that she was going on about how all of this must've been the way it was supposed to be all along… and then she kissed him."

Stef squinted her eyes at her wife before responding. "What?" she asked in a surprised tone. "This doesn't make any sense," she shook her head slightly. "Why wouldn't Callie just tell us this from the beginning? …No, Callie left the fundraiser with Brandon to come here, Lena. Brandon must be lying t—"

"He's not lying, Stef. Callie left the fundraiser alone. She was asleep in her bed when Brandon got here. He even told her that she had nothing to worry about, that we would fight for her, but she wasn't acting the same. He said that she was going on about not wanting anyone to fight for her because it would just cause problems and we'd lose because Robert had more money…And I think this was her way of coping with all of it I guess."

"By lying to me?" Stef questioned in a baffled voice. "By telling me that _she never cared about any of us_ and that _she was in love with Brandon the whole time_? Why? Why would she—"

"Honey," Lena started as she placed her hand up to her wife's face to keep her from going off the deep end, "…Callie was trying to detach herself from you when she said those things. She tried to detach herself from all of us and used Brandon to do it. I think she's scared—"

"Of what?"

"Of losing us. Of Robert getting what he wants and taking away the only safety net she has left… I think this was her way of coping with it. She wanted to take away everything from herself before someone else did. She either used Brandon to do it or convinced herself that she did love him... Isn't that why she ran away the day we asked her to be adopted? And why she barely spoke to us when she got back from Helen's? Because she wanted to ruin everything before the kiss with Brandon, ACS, or even Robert did."

Stef froze as she began to realize the connection. Both women sat in silence for a few seconds before Stef finally found her voice, "...I'm so stupid. I should've seen what was happening. I'm her mother. The second that she opened her mouth, I should have realized that she was lying."

"No, Stef," Lena tried to interrupt but Stef did the same.

"I made it easy for her. I walked away the second she said something to hurt my feelings… If I didn't fight for her then, how am I supposed to convince her that I'm willing to fight for her now, huh? How is she ever going to trust me?"

"Babe, you're not going to be able to accomplish either of those things if you're too busy sitting here blaming yourself… Honey, I love you. I really do, but what you're doing right now isn't any better than what Callie has done. Hurting yourself even more is not going to make any of this better."

"_I don't think I can even look at her anymore after what I have done, Lena_," Stef asserted in honesty.

"Well what do you want to do?" Lena asked, as she finally began getting frustrated with her wife. "Give up on her? Prove her right because you're feeling guilty? You want to let Robert win and take Callie so she can end up just like Sofia was a few hours ago?"

Stef looked at her wife in an astounded expression, "How can you even say that?"

"Because it's a possibility," Lena answered sternly. "Callie is spiraling downwards and she's making stupid decision after stupid decision. She's trying to push you away so don't let her."

* * *

While both women were making their way down the stairs, the first thing they noticed was that the front door was wide open. Stef walked over to the doorway and glanced around before getting back inside and closing it.

Lena saw that Jesus was sitting on the couch. "Jesus, why was the front door open?"

"I don't know? It wasn't me," he shrugged his shoulders as he threw another Oreo in his mouth. "I just got here," he said as he accidentally spit a piece onto the floor.

Lena gave him a disgusted look, "Please clean up whatever mess you leave?"

"What mess?" he questioned as he looked around innocently.

"That mess," Lena said as she pointed to the piece on the floor. "And every other piece you end up dropping."

"Okay," Jesus nodded and sighed.

"Have you seen Callie? She's not in her room," Lena asked next.

"Yeah, she went out to the backyard I think."

"By herself?" Stef questioned. "When?

"Yeah. Just a little while ago. She was acting a bit crazy if you ask me, but I don't know."

"What do you mean she was acting crazy?" Stef continued with worry.

"I don't know. You know how girls are… She started tossing open the drawers in the kitchen loudly as if she lost something. Kind of like when she lost her necklace."

"Did you see what she was looking for?"

"I think I saw her pull out the matchbox. I'm not sure though. It was red and that's the only red thing I remember seeing in—" Jesus stopped the second he saw the worried look on Stef's face. The teen watched as she ran for the kitchen. Lena stayed behind when she saw that Jesus was about to chase after her, "Whoa. What's going on?" he asked the second his mother grabbed onto his arm.

"Nothing, Jesus. I need you to go upstairs and make sure everyone else stays up there too."

"What? No way," he answered as he tried to take a step closer toward the kitchen but Lena tightened her grip on him.

"Jesus, just do it! We're all going to be fine. I promise."

"Mom doesn't look fine," he voiced loudly.

"Jesus, unless you want to be grounded for the next two months, you'll go upstairs and you will not tell anyone else about this, do you hear me? Because if you do, the same rules apply to them… Don't worry. Your mom and I will handle it."

Jesus stared at his mother and knew better than to challenge her.

"Go," she continued while she watched him walk all the way up and into his room, before she made her way over to the backyard...

To be continued.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

* * *

Callie was completely engulfed in her own trance that she hadn't heard the backdoor fly open and Stef's footsteps as she ran outside. That was the whole point of the burning: to forget about everything happening around her and every problem that was consuming her mind.

_Focus on the pain_, she reminded herself. _It always made her feel better_.

_But how long did she have to keep burning herself in the exact same spot for it to hurt badly enough? _

_Sure it was helping._

_It always helped._

It helped to calm her down which was the biggest goal of them all.

It helped her to finally catch her breath so that she could find the force to believe that she could get through all of this.

_But if that were the case, why couldn't Callie look at the fire anymore? _

_Why did she have to close her eyes and look away from what she was doing to her body?_

_How was it that she had once admired the bright yellow light that etched itself onto her skin, and all of a sudden she couldn't even bare the sight of it anymore?_

It didn't make any sense, but that didn't stop it from doing its job and keeping her distracted.

* * *

And by the time Stef had walked all of the way out into the yard, Callie had been clenching her eyes shut and digging her nails into the grass in order to prevent herself from removing the wood sticks from knee. She hadn't even heard the footsteps racing towards her despite their close proximity. The teen only opened her eyes when she felt the matches being pushed off of her and the skid of dirt that landed on her legs and her white dress when Stef landed right beside her.

Almost instantly she felt the touch of someone cupping her face and immediately removed herself from Stef's hands, attempting to move astray from her in the process.

"Get away from me!" the girl snapped at the blonde with all of the hate and anger that she could muster through both her voice and her eyes. And as she tried to stand up from the dirt, Callie realized that she wasn't quick enough when Stef was able to grab onto her arm.

"I'm not going to that, baby," Stef attempted to convince her in a calm but assertive tone, though the teen seemed completely unfazed by the older woman's gesture as she began to remove the blonde's fingers from her arm one by one. Stef just wrapped her own hand around Callie's to stop her from trying to escape. "I know that's what you think that you want, but I'm not going to let you go that easily. Honey… look at me," Stef begged as she tried to get her daughter to meet her gaze, hoping that it will trigger her to at least relax.

And at first Callie kept her eyes focused downwards at the matchbox and even the black straps of her duffle bag. But a few seconds afterwards, the girl felt a sudden rage come over her when she realized that another person wasn't willing to let her go.

_What didn't Stef understand from what I had just said to her just minutes before? _

_Why was she acting as if nothing had happened at all?_

"Are you stupid?!" Callie retorted, hoping that she could strike Stef where it hurt by showing her complete disrespect and disconnection. "I don't want to be here! I don't want to be with any of you! It's over! Don't you get it?!" she finished.

And although Callie tried to sound as harsh as she possibly could and even glared at her mother in the eye as she spoke, it was like Stef wasn't even listening. The teen had expected to see the same look of betrayal and surprise on the woman's face, the very same look she had witnessed in her bedroom.

But she didn't.

Stef's face was determined and unaffected, which made the brunette panic even more. "It's not," Stef answered in a firm but calm voice while she shook her head and kept her gaze on Callie, "…It's not over—"

Callie glanced back at the woman in utter disbelief, wondering what the hell she was referring to.

_She had to hurt her. _

_And she had to take it as far as she needed in order to detach herself from these people completely… even if that meant hurting herself even more in the process. _

"I. Don't. Love. You," Callie responded in a slow yet firm tone. _Any way that she would have to say it so that it would ring true to Stef would suffice_. "…Any. Of. You. So… Get. Away. From. Me," she landed on a cold and harsh note, and then proceeded to rip herself away from Stef's grasp. Fortunately for her she was actually able to.

* * *

It was then that the girl stood up from the ground and looked away from Stef. And she would have believed she had succeeded had she not turned her body around and noticed Lena standing right in front of her.

Callie thought it would've been better not to engage in either of them as she bent over to grab her duffle bag but didn't see it on the floor where she had left it. Her eyes quickly scanned the ground and when they finally caught sight of it, Stef was already standing up and holding it in her hands.

The teen glared at the woman angrily, "Can I have my bag?"

"Can you calm your ass down?" Stef retorted.

"Stef," Lena chastised before she glanced back over toward the teen, "We want the truth, Callie," Lena instructed, "Why are you really doing this?"

The girl whipped her body around to stare the woman down, "I'm _giving_ you two the truth. It's not my fault that both of you are too stupid to listen. You can't force me to be a part of your family—"

"But Robert can?" Stef questioned intuitively, which caused Callie to squint her eyes in confusion.

"This doesn't have anything to do with Robert. This is my choice," Callie informed both of them.

"And a pretty stupid one at that," the blonde commented.

"Stef, that's not helping," Lena warned again.

The cop gave her wife an unapologetic look.

* * *

"Forget it," Callie answered. "You can keep the stupid bag if you want it so much," she told both women as she started to step away from them, but Lena instinctively stepped in front of her again.

Unlike her wife, she wasn't willing to get physical because she knew that Stef's attempt to hold onto the girl might only added fuel to the fire. Callie used _the anger_ that she felt when the older woman put her hands on her, to give her more incentive rather than to calm her down.

Callie rolled her eyes as if she wasn't afraid of her, but Lena remained still and kept her own eyes focused on the teen. Stef took advantage of this time to slowly place the bag onto the floor, so that she wouldn't have anything holding her back if she had to chase the girl down in the end.

"What's your problem, Lena?" Callie challenged as she crossed her arms over her chest, in an attempt to prove that both of them were wrong about her yet again. "What is that you want me from me, huh? You want me to stay here and be miserable so that you can go on, believing a lie? Is that it? …Don't be stupid," the teen finished as she began to walk away from her and toward the front of the house.

"We know about what Robert did," Lena informed her out of desperation, while she too started to follow right behind the teen.

Callie made a quick pause at the woman's statement but she fought the urge to keep walking, this time even faster. "What is it that you think you know?" Callie questioned sarcastically as she pulled the gate open so that she could leave for good.

"That he lied to you!" Stef answered as she caught the gate before it hit her, "That he told you that he signed the abandonment papers and when he didn't."

_He did_, Callie thought to herself. That was what pissed her off the most…_that he already did and refused to resign them again as if it really made a difference_.

Lena followed behind Stef, "We understand that your scared, Callie—"

"I'm not scared," she tried to convince them, and she hated herself for letting it come out in a shaky tone.

"You're not?" Stef asked in sarcasm.

"No, I'm not," the teen replied harshly.

"Then why did you start speeding up when we mentioned his name?" the blonde questioned.

Callie shook her head slightly, "Because you two are chasing me for no reason," she answered matter-of-factly.

"No, not for no reason," Stef raised her voice, "…Do you honestly believe that we would be following you if we didn't care?"

"Callie, your moms right," Lena defended. "We—"

"She's not my mom," the girl interrupted, "And neither are you, so just get over it."

"Alright Callie, that's enough," Stef spoke out of frustration. "…It's not going to work okay? Whatever plan you have of trying to pull away from us has failed, so your best bet is to just stop."

* * *

"I don't know what you're talking about," Callie voiced in an emotionless tone as she kept her eyes focused ahead of her while she walked. She began to count the cracks on the sidewalk in an effort to take her mind off of the two women walking along side her.

_How long would we have to walk until they realized that I wasn't coming back with them?_ she wondered.

And by this time, Stef was trying her best to convince Callie that what she was doing _wasn't okay_. Lena made her promise that she wouldn't go and scare Callie even more in order to get her to get her to understand.

But talking it out calmly wasn't working, and the fact that Callie was attempting to run away from them yet again was pissing Stef off more and more with every step she took.

_She wasn't going to chase her and she wasn't going to let Callie believe she could get as far as she thought. _

"Honey," Lena started to reason to the girl, "You don't have t— Stef!" she yelled when she saw the blonde grab Callie by both arms from behind and attempt to pull her towards the direction of the house.

Callie instinctively tried to pull herself away from the blonde but both of them found themselves struggling.

"That's enough!" Stef shouted at the girl as she applied even more force on her than she originally planned to. "Lena, go get my cuffs!"

To be continued…

* * *

**Will Stef **_**need**_** the cuffs? **

**Will Stef's plan, to physically and mentally subdue Callie, work? Or will it close her off even more like Lena predicted? (Hint: If you read "Burned" you might know this answer)**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

* * *

"Lena, go get my cuffs!" Stef yelled. Her face was fuming with rage when she felt the teen she was holding onto was still attempting to escape.

"What!?" Callie screeched in a panicked voice the second she heard the word _cuffs_ spilling out of the cop's mouth. And suddenly, the brunette felt Stef's elbow digging into her back in an attempt to force the teen onto a kneeling position. Callie opened her mouth to yell but was too frightened by all that was happening. So instead, she continued to fidget her way out of the woman's grasp by twisting and turning her body. But the fall that her bare knees made onto the cement hurt her even more, than she realized it would. It forced her to remember the burns she had just made a couple minutes earlier with the matches.

"Stef, let go of her!" Lena instructed her wife as she watched both of them drop onto the floor. And although Callie was almost subdued by the pain her eyes told a completely different story and showed Lena that she was still in flight-mode.

It was obvious to Stef that it was getting more and more difficult to control her without hurting her too badly, so instead of putting her weight on the teen, she shifted positions and let go of Callie's arms. But immediately afterwards, she wrapped her own arms around the girl's chest so that the girl had limited movement and no balance. This caused Stef to take advantage of the situation and pull Callie backwards so that they were both in a sitting position and facing the same direction.

"Stef, let go! What are you doing?" the teen yelled as she continued to struggle to break free but could barely move. And her attempts resembled a fish attempting to breath on land when it had been just taken out of the water. She had nowhere to go. "Stop! …Stef… Stop!" she shouted as her desperate pleads morphed into sobs. She found herself having to take in deeper and deeper breaths as she became incapable of finding the rhythm to her own breathing.

Stef was able to remove one of her arms as soon as she got in a firm enough position and she quickly placed the hand on Callie's head so that she could not only limit her movement even more, but calm her down in the process. "I'm not going to stop, baby," the older woman cooed as she began to stroke Callie's hair with her thumb. "I'm sorry," she mumbled into the teen's ear.

* * *

"No," Callie tried to shake her head but wasn't able to. "You don't get to do this!"

"Do what?" Stef asked when she felt the girl's body tense in front of her.

"This!" she repeated. "You don't understand, Stef! This is what's supposed to happen. Why can't either of you get that?"

"Because that's a copout," Stef replied in a harsher and louder tone. Stef needed to get through to the girl and she knew that at this point, she had to raise her voice to do it. "Because you only convinced yourself that it's what was supposed to happen, so you don't have to deal with what's really bothering you. And I know that leaving us isn't what you really want. And neither is Robert or even Brandon."

"Yes, it is," Callie tried to scream, but it came out in a tired voice instead because she didn't have any more fight left in her.

Luckily for the teen, she wasn't able to see the pissed off face that Stef made when she glanced over toward Lena for guidance.

Lena took that as her cue to try next, so she approached the two of them and kneeled down next to Callie. And when Stef realized that Callie wasn't attempting to flee anymore, she released her hold on the girl a little but maintained close distance as Lena spoke, "Honey, what Robert wants doesn't have to be the same thing as what _you_ want. Your mom and I will fight this. I promise you that we—"

"Promise me what?" Callie retorted and took a deep breath before continuing in a calmer voice, "…I'm not like you, Lena. Or any one in your entire family. Things don't ever work out the way that I want them to. In fact… if you hadn't noticed the exact opposite happens _over and over and over again_. I'm tired of trying and failing—"

"So, you wan to quit on us instead?" Lena asked. "You're going to quit on your brother too?"

"It doesn't matter if I quit or not. Robert—"

"Has nothing on us," Stef interrupted as she cupped Callie's face into her hands so that she would be able to look in her daughter's eyes as she spoke. "Callie, he hasn't been in your life since you were born, and he already made a verbal contract with lawyers that he would sign the abandonment papers after you took that DNA test… And I know we haven't been in your life for much longer than he has but I'll be damned if I let him take you from this family… Do you hear me?" Stef finished; her chin was trembling as she tried to keep her own emotions from showing through. She knew that it was important for her to show her strength at this time and to prove Callie wrong. Crying wouldn't be the way to do that.

Two tears dropped from Callie's own eyes, because she wanted nothing more than to believe the woman. She wanted nothing more than to pretend like nothing at all had happened at Robert's house. "It's not going to—"

* * *

"Callie, we're going to fight for you whether you like it or not," Lena informed her, causing the girl to turn her attention away from Stef and onto her other mom. "..So you can either be with us or against us. You can quit or you can fight for what you want. But either way, that's not going to change anything… We are _your_ parents. It's not the other way around. You don't get to protect us by leaving everyone you care about. You're only hurting yourself and us in the end, and I know that's not what you want... So which is it going to be?" Lena finished as she waited for Callie to respond.

"Mama's right. This is our battle and we don't want you to worry about any of it. You should have come to us right away, when all of this happened and I think that's the problem. You haven't learned to trust us yet."

"And we _need_ that trust, Callie," Lena continued for Stef. "We need you to trust us enough to let us lift this weight off of your shoulders, because you can't handle it." She placed her hand on the burns on Callie's knee to prove her point, causing the girl to look away from her shamefully. "…And you don't have to feel ashamed for breaking down like this in front of your moms but you do have to be strong enough to get back up, okay?"

"She's right, ya know?" the blonde confirmed with a slight smile, "We're not raising quitters in this family. And you've been fighting on your own for far too long and now it's our turn. _That's _what it means to have two parents who love you… And if we have to prove it to you by taking a drive to Robert's house right now and… _handling it…"_

"Stef," Lena interrupted but Callie couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

"Then that's exactly what I'll do," Stef smiled. "It's up to you," she raised her eyebrows.

Callie shook her head even though the thought actually made her feel better. But she didn't want to make a bad situation worse for them.

"Are you sure?" Stef asked as if she really wanted the teen to say yes.

"I'm sure," Callie smiled as she let out an exaggerated sigh. "…Now what?"

Lena stood up, "Now you two get up from the middle of the sidewalk because the neighbors are starting to stare," she answered playfully as she began walking back toward the house.

"Fine," Stef gave in. "Just go get the cuffs first!" she shouted at Lena who turned around and smiled at them but kept walking.

Callie laughed as she got up and held out her hand for her mother, "You weren't really going to cuff me, were you?"

Stef smiled sheepishly at Callie before responding, "And what makes you so sure that I'm still not going to cuff you when we get in the house?" she questioned, leaving Callie in suspicion.

To be continued.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: 1 more chapter after this one. Just so you are aware…**

* * *

**Chapter 14**

Thankfully all three women were able to walk inside of the house and upstairs to Stef's and Lena's bedroom before anyone could catch them. Callie had to be practically shoved inside of the room by Stef, because she wanted to avoid the whole clean up situation.

Lena closed the door behind them before making a face when she saw just how bad the burns were on Callie's skin with the better lighting.

"I should probably talk to Jude and Mariana first," Callie said as she waited for Stef's okay.

Just as Stef was about to say no, Lena answered, "I will talk to them both later. I don't want you to worry about any of that. Or anything for that matter…Let us handle it," she nodded slightly.

Callie let out an exaggerated breath, which demonstrated just how much she was dreading all of this.

"Oh, it won't be that' bad," Stef teased as she began walking Callie to their bathroom.

"I'll go get the first aid kit. I think it's still downstairs. Be right back," Lena informed them as she walked out of the room.

Just as Callie walked in their bathroom, she turned around to face Stef, who raised her eyebrows in anticipation as if she was ready for the girl to try and bolt again.

"I can clean them myself," Callie asserted with the hopes that the woman would actually give her confirmation. "I remembered not to use alcohol."

"I know you can, sweets. But I would prefer to do it myself."

"But—" Callie started.

"It's not up for discussion," Stef voiced calmly but gave her a stern look to let her know that she was serious, as she proceeded to walk her toward the edge of the bathtub. "Have a seat. Let's take a look, yes?"

"I hate it when you talk like that," Callie mumbled. "You make it feel like we're at a doctor's office or something."

"Well, good," the blonde answered. "Think of it as just a little preview of what's going to happen if this burning continues."

Callie rolled her eyes and took another deep breath as Stef walked over toward the sink to wash her hands.

"Should Lena be here for this?" Callie asked, causing Stef to give her a puzzled expression. Callie attempted to explain, "I mean, I saw the way she looked at them and… I don't really think she can really handle it."

"Your mama is tougher than you think, Callie. She was probably surprised is all. She'll be fine… And trust me, if she doesn't come back with that first aid kit that's when you can worry," Stef smiled as she knelt on the floor. "And besides, I think she'll want to be here."

"Why?" Callie voice showed confusion.

"Because…" Stef paused as she stared at the doorway to make sure Lena hadn't come back yet, "She felt _guilty_ the last time."

"The last time what?" the teen questioned.

"The last time _this_ happened…"

"Oh."

"Oh," Stef repeated. "…So I doubt even dead bolting that door shut is not going to keep her from getting in here… No matter how gross your knee looks," Stef joked to lighten the situation.

"Thanks," Callie replied sarcastically.

"…Alright, so now that I've seen your knee what else are we dealing with here?" Stef asked.

The teen looked up at Stef and it was obvious that she was afraid to say anything.

"You can either be honest with me and tell me or... I can find out other ways…" Stef raised her eyebrows and clenched her lips together so that Callie could get the point.

"Other ways like what?" Callie still questioned.

"Uhuh. So you really want to go there," Stef nodded as she began to stand up from her spot on the floor.

"No, Stef. No," Callie answered immediately.

"Smart decision... So?" the blonde urged while she knelt back down.

Callie's face froze for a few seconds, and eventually she gave in and began to remove her sweater. The teen wasn't even sure if she'd find any noticeable burns on her forearms at all, because she knew that it was a hit and miss situation when it came to fire. But she was afraid of having to get butt naked in front of Stef if she didn't cooperate.

Callie removed her first arm from her cardigan, and Stef took in the few small pink patches above her wrist. _Not as bad as she had thought_ she realized. But when Callie tried to remove her other one, Stef instantly grabbed hold of her hand when she noticed the large red lines branded onto her palm. "Oh my God, Callie," the blonde in front of her voiced loudly enough for Callie to attempt to retract her hand back. "No, don't move," the older woman instructed as she took another look. "What the hell happened?" she questioned the teen, making sure to keep direct eye contact with her so that she could tell if she was lying.

"The stove," Callie muttered simply.

* * *

"You wrapped your hand around the stove?" Lena's voice came from behind Stef and caught both of them off guard. Callie glanced up at the woman and tried to study her face for another uncomfortable reaction but didn't find one.

"Well, I didn't mean to," Callie tried to defend as both women looked at her skeptically. "It was an acc—"

"Do not say accident," Stef warned. "We talked about this the last time remember?"

Callie looked away from both of them and toward her wound, giving Stef her queue to continue. "We talked about how _just because you didn't mean for the burn to get this bad, doesn't mean that it was an accident_. If it was your intention to burn then it's not an—"

"But I shut the stove off bef—"

"Callie," Stef stopped her when she was beginning to lose her patience.

The teen sighed, "Alright, fine," she answered flatly, knowing that she wasn't going to win this debate with two women down her throat now.

"Okay," Stef continued with a hesitant voice as she stared at Callie and then at Callie's arm. "These don't look too bad," she informed both women as she removed the other sleeve of Callie's cardigan to glance at her other arm. She took a deep breath when she saw a large burn that looked to take up the size of half of her forearm. It was oozing slightly and she could tell that it must have been really painful. She took a deep breath before she looked up to her wife.

Lena attempted to lean in and to examine it even closer, making Callie feel even more uncomfortable while she subconsciously pulled her arm back.

Lena tried to ignore it because she knew that the girl had just felt embarrassed, "Callie, how did that one happen?"

"…the stove," she answered again.

"Any more?" Stef asked in a no nonsense tone.

"No," she answered honestly.

"Alright," Stef said before she started to stand up and open the cabinet underneath the sink. She attempted to hand over the bottle of mild soap to Callie, causing the girl to make a depressed face. "…Oh no," the blonde continued, "You knew that this was going to happen," she informed her as she turned on the cold water in the shower and began to adjust the temperature.

Lena tried to understand what was happening.

"Haven't I already been tortured enough for one day?" Callie mumbled.

"Not by me you haven't," Stef answered with a slight smile as she held out her hand even further for Callie to give in and take it. "You know the drill…"

Callie stared at Stef blankly and wanted to say something but thought it was better not to. She didn't win the last time this happened and she knew that she couldn't avoid the inevitable. Stef couldn't help but smile as soon as Callie took the soap from Stef's hands without putting up a fight. _This is better than the last time_, she thought to herself but quickly hid the smile when Callie turned around after she got into the shower with her clothes on. She pulled the curtain back so that they couldn't look at her and Lena stared at her wife.

"Honey, are you sure that a cold shower after all of that is such a good idea?" she whispered.

"If it keeps her from burning again anytime soon, then yes," Stef answered. "Relax, babe. I know what I'm doing. After what happened the last time, Callie didn't have another slip until now. She didn't burn _for months_. If she needs to be reminded of it and _this _is the best way to get through to her then…"

Lena sighed but nodded, "Okay. Seems like more torture to me," Lena mumbled.

"Well good," Stef whispered. "Serves her right."

Lena raised her eyebrows but Stef made a face, "The water isn't that cold," she answered innocently. And in reality, she knew that if she had to take it this far every time, she would.

* * *

By the time Callie was finished taking a quick shower, she pulled the curtain back, expecting to find Stef sitting on the toilet seat cover again waiting for her. But she was surprised when all she saw were a pair of pajamas shorts, a t-shirt, a sports bra and some underwear on top of a towel. The door was left ajar and she was actually relieved that no one else was in there with her.

_Lena must've convinced her to give me some privacy,_ she thought to herself and suddenly she was thankful that Lena had been there too.

"Callie, we're right out here waiting for you, so when you're ready," Lena offered in an attempt to make Callie feel as comfortable as the situation would allow.

But Stef wasn't so trustworthy, "And no funny business, please? If you take too long I'm coming in there."

"Stef," Lena chastised, "We just talked about this," Callie heard Lena whisper-scold her other mom, causing her to smile a little at the sound of Stef getting reprimanded.

The blonde opened her mouth to say something back but gave Lena a childish grumpy look in response.

It was only seconds later that Stef heard Callie's phone vibrate in their desk drawer. She glanced over toward the door to make sure that Callie wasn't already on her way out before getting up and running toward the drawer and pulling it open.

"I'm done," Callie mumbled at that exact moment, causing for Lena to stare at her wife angrily, but Stef paid her no attention. Lena shook her head with disapproval as she walked into the bathroom to help her daughter wrap up her burns.

And not to Stef's surprise, the phone displayed a text and five missed calls from Robert, Asshole-Of-The-Year in Stef's eyes. The blonde picked it up and stared at it intently as she read the message: **Callie, I'm sorry for not being able to re-sign the papers but after what happened to Sofia, it made me realize that I was absolutely right not to. I'm sure your foster moms already told you what happened so I need you to know that I'm still going to fight for you. I can't lose you like I almost lost Sofia today or like I lost your mother seventeen years ago. Don't you think your mother would want what was best for you? No limit to everything you've ever wanted and your family? Your real family. I don't think that she would want you stay with the first group of people you felt comfortable with because you felt obliged to them. You can still see Jude. You can still see Stef and Lena. I wont keep them from you. But please try to understand. I want you to be happy and I'm sure that you will be if you give us a chance. I am your father. You even said it yourself today. Please don't hate me because of one mistake. I'm sorry I lied but I still want to be there for you. Love, Dad.**

Stef shook her head the entire time she had read the text. She couldn't believe how wrong he was about her. And every single sentence that he wrote proved just that. Part of her wanted to leave the house and go to Robert's place or find out what hospital Sofia was being treated in and going there to set him straight… to tell him that she wasn't going to let him have custody of her kid in a billion years.

And at this moment, she had to fight against leaving… Not only would Lena kill her if she left right away, but she knew that Callie would probably put two-and-two together. And the last thing she wanted was for it to trigger her to burn again or to run.

So rather than doing anything tonight, she took a deep breath and deleted the text from Callie's phone, making sure to shut it directly afterwards before placing it back in the drawer and closing it.

* * *

"All done," Lena said purposely loud enough so that her wife would get the hint before opening the bathroom door and following Callie out.

Callie appeared almost miserable and Stef had to smile when she saw the look on her face. "Do I at least get some pants and a sweater so that I don't have to walk to my room like I just got ran over by a car?" she mumbled.

"Awwwww, poor baby," Stef answered sarcastically as she gave Callie a kiss on her forehead, which Callie found strange but didn't say anything. "…And no. I'm afraid you don't."

"Great. Just what I need. Everyone in the house to see me like this."

"They're not going to see you like this, Callie," Stef tried to assure her, causing the teen to give her a confused expression in return.

"Then how…"

"Oh, I'm glad you asked," Stef smiled sheepishly as she walked over toward her closet and pulled something out.

And by the metal rattling in her handle, Callie already knew what was hiding behind her back. "Stef, come on, no," Callie begged as she backed away from the blonde and hid her hands behind her back so that Stef couldn't reach them.

"Stef, is that really necessary?" Lena questioned her wife.

"She needs to know that there are consequences," Stef answered her, "Relax, Callie. It won't be so bad… unless you refuse," Stef warned as she took a step closer and saw the look in Callie's eyes. "Those puppy dog eyes aren't going to work with me, sweets… Maybe with Lena, but not with me," Stef smiled as she grabbed one of Callie's arms and placed one of the cuffs around her wrist tightly but not too tight. "I have to take a shower…Lena, can you come here a sec?"

Lena started walking over toward her, "This isn't right," she informed the blonde. "But I'll watch her for now. After your done, the cuffs come off of her. Got it?" Lena informed her.

"Sure," Stef said unconvincingly, as she quickly grabbed Lena's wrist and before Lena could move away, Stef wrapped the other cuff around hers. "Stef!" Lena yelped as she looked angrily at her wife. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" she questioned her.

"You said that you wanted to be here this time, Lena. So…" Stef paused, "you're here."

Lena let out a deep breath as she looked at her wrist and back at her wife, "Stef, remove these cuffs off of me, now," Lena instructed causing Callie to chuckle at how funny Lena looked cuffed next to her, angry and baffled.

"I will. I promise. When I get out of the shower," Stef answered as she walked toward the bathroom, "…And once I find the key," the blonde mumbled before closing the door and causing both Callie's and Lena's faces to go straight.

"Callie?" Lena questioned.

"Uhuh?"

"We need to find this key," Lena glanced around the room.

"Agreed."

Stef took her ear off of the door and smiled as she pulled the key out of her pocket and placed it in one of the bathroom drawers where Lena had her makeup. She took a deep breath and turned on the bath, figuring that there was no need to rush.

To be continued…


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

"Did you find it?" Callie asked Lena as the woman opened Stef's safe and forced the girl to look away while she put in the code.

"No," Lena mumbled angrily. "I'm going to kill her for doing this," she informed her as she smiled creepily, "Oh, she is so dead," she continued as she shook her head, causing Callie to look at her worriedly.

The teen sighed, "What about the nightstand?" she pointed to it, and Lena felt her pull her cuff back when Callie attempted to walk over toward it. "Ow!" she yelled and gave Lena an angry look. "What'd you do that for?"

"Uh… it's not in the nightstand," Lena answered with certainty, mainly because she didn't want Callie looking there in the first place. There was no telling what Stef left in there and the last thing she wanted was a more awkward moment between them.

"Are you sure? Because we've looked everywhere and—"

"Positive," Lena answered in a panicked voice, which caused Callie to look at her even more strangely. The older woman decided to change the subject, "I think this is the most ridiculous thing she has ever done. Worse than the times she decided to cuff Mariana and Jesus together when they weren't getting along."

Callie chuckled, "She did what?"

Lena tried to hide her smile. She wanted to stay angry. "When the twins were younger she used to cuff them every time Mariana started screaming at Jesus because he grabbed her nite-nite, that was her blanket that she never went anywhere without."

"Oh," Callie nodded.

"And Jesus use to just start it because he thought her obsession with her blanket was funny… But that all stopped when she made them spend hours together, side-by-side. Did it to Brandon and Jesus too. Come to think of it, it was always Jesus and one of the kids..."

"I would have loved to see that," Callie answered honestly.

"You will. I'm sure she has pictures around here somewhere… But this still makes no sense to me. Why would she do this? It's not like we were fighting or… I don't even know," she shook her head.

Callie thought for a second and had to smile, "I think I know."

Lena gave her a look that urged her to continue.

"Okay, so she stuck Jesus and Mariana together as a punishment right?"

"It was a punishment but to her it was a lesson of some sort. Why? I didn't do anything to need a lesson or…"

"You kinda did," Callie confessed.

"Excuse me?" Lena questioned. "What did I—"

"Okay, so she mentioned you…" Callie stopped to cough nervously before she continued, "earlier she mentioned that you felt guilty about not having… been there for me when…the first time that I…"

"Burned," Lena finished for her.

"Yeah, and I guess she's trying to get you to realize that you shouldn't feel guilty over something you have no control of. You're here now and that's all that really matters. Apparently neither of us have control over this," she lifted up their cuffed hands for emphasis, "and you're still right next to me, helping me through it…or whatever," Callie shrugged her shoulders.

Lena nodded with understanding, "Well I'm your mom, Callie. That's what I'm supposed to do… And I can't believe you realized all of that before me," she mumbled.

"You were too angry about being cuffed to think. I'm too tired of being angry."

"And what about your lesson?" Lena questioned with a smile.

"After all that I did today?" Callie asked in surprise. "Don't burn or I'll get handcuffed to you," the teen chuckled. "Lesson learned."

"Sweetheart, Mom wouldn't handcuff you just for that. She's upset about that but she wouldn't punish you... Think a little harder."

Callie let out a deep breath at the thought of having to figure it out. "That… hm?" she thought to herself and looked at her mother for her insight instead.

Lena gave in, "Maybe she was trying to tell you that you can't detach yourself from anyone in this family no matter how hard you try." Now Lena lifted their hands for emphasis, "Look how well that turned out."

"Not very well," Callie smiled. "...This was a pretty mean way to make a point," she informed her.

"Yes, it was."

"But I get it."

"Well," Lena sighed, "I guess I'm not that mad anymore at her either," she added as she squeezed the teen's hand. "Without it, we probably wouldn't have had this…"

Callie nodded as she looked at Lena and then turned her attention to the bathroom door, "…Do you think she's just sitting on the floor right now listening to us?" the girl questioned.

"Probably," she laughed.

Stef opened the door while she was drying her hair with a towel and looked at her daughter and wife with confusion, when she noticed her wife wasn't giving her the look. She didn't look angry or miserable at all.

"What did you two do?" she asked worriedly as she looked around the room for any sign of trickery while tightening her gray robe.

"Nothing," Lena smiled as she stood up and began walking over toward her, leaving Callie no other choice but to follow. "I love you. Do you know that?" Lena told her as she gave her a quick peck on the lips. Callie glanced away out of awkwardness, and Stef squinted her eyes at her wife in confusion.

"Yes," Stef answered flatly.

"We've figured it out," Lena continued.

"Figured what out?"

"Our lessons," Callie informed her.

"You did?" Stef asked with a smile and a nod even though she honestly had no idea what the two of them were talking about, but thought better than to to tell them.

"Yes," Lena agreed.

"Well good," the blonde nodded again. "I'm glad."

"So you can let us go now," Lena asserted. "I have to talk to the kids since I doubt that they're sleeping.

"Alright," Stef agreed as she put her hand in her robe and pulled out the key to unlock Lena, "And tell them I love them and that I said good night please?"

"Will do," Lena answered. "I'll be right back."

* * *

Stef watched as Lena left the room and Callie glanced around awkwardly as she stood next to the blonde.

"Do you have to go to the bathroom?" Stef questioned.

"Uh…no," Callie shook her head.

"Okay good," the blonde nodded as she took the other cuff and wrapped it around her own wrist. "Neither do I."

Callie stared at the woman blankly.

"You didn't think that you were going to get rid of me that easily did you?" she tilted her head to the side. Callie opened her mouth to reply but couldn't find the words to speak. "Sweets, you have no idea how badly you scared me today."

"I know. I'm sorry," the teen replied earnestly.

"And it scared me even more that I believed you. I thought you really wanted to leave… It's not about being sorry. I know that you're sorry but I need to make sure you don't go anywhere until I figure this out. And I will have this all settled by tomorrow. But I'm going to need you to trust me too… This isn't your fight anymore. It's mine and Lena's. And I know that you don't trust us right now but if I have to tie you down to me or Lena to convince you that you should, I will. Okay? This will all be settled before you know it, but you can't have your doubts getting the best of you. You know that I'm only doing this because I love you, yes?"

Callie sighed and nodded. "How am I supposed to sleep?" she asked simply.

Stef smiled when she realized that she wasn't going to fight her any more on this and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "I'm glad you asked."

* * *

The first thing Stef did in the morning was unlatch Callie's wrist from the cuff and wake Lena up so that she could keep an eye on her. Lena gave Stef a look but wrapped her arm around Callie so that she could feel her whenever she woke up. Although she wasn't sure what Stef was going to do exactly, she knew that she was going to see Robert and didn't want to risk waking her daughter up.

And Stef didn't want to go to the hospital to have this discussion with him while his family was having such a terrible time, but the thought of Callie trying to burn again or even running from them again was too much to bear. She wouldn't handcuff the girl to her wife or her siblings 24/7. That wasn't fair to Callie either and Stef knew it. But she couldn't lose her and she needed Callie to feel safe there. She promised her that she would fix everything and if showing a little rudeness to Robert was the way to make sure neither of those things happened, that's exactly what she would do.

As soon as she got her visitor's pass to go up to Sofia's room, she rushed upstairs to the third floor with some flowers and a teddy bear she bought in the gift shop downstairs. She hadn't even thought of what exactly she was going to say but she didn't want to waste any time doing that either.

When she approached the room, she noticed that the door was wide open and Robert and Jill were sitting on the sofa, apparently waiting for Sofia to wake up. She froze when she saw that the girl had been unconscious, and suddenly she wanted to retract in her steps if things had been more serious than she thought.

Jill noticed Stef first and gave the woman a small smile and got her husband's attention. Soon after, both of them walked outside of the room and closed Sofia's door.

"How is she doing?" Stef asked both of them as she handed over the flowers and the bear, but she figured that if Jill was smiling then she must've been doing better.

"She's fine," Jill nodded. "Thanks to you... She just fell asleep a few minutes ago actually. And thank you for this," she said as she gestured towards the get well gifts, "I would wake her up but…"

"Oh don't," Stef shook her head. "I understand."

"She's not here just for that," Robert told his wife as he looked over at Stef. "I'm guessing that Callie already told you about what we talked about."

"You're right. I'm not here for just that. And yes, Callie told us what happened. That you refused to sign the abandonment papers after you promised her that you would," she tried to remain calm.

"I did sign the papers. And then Sofia ripped them. You don't understand how hard it was for me to sign them the first time around, Stef. And after I finally got the courage to sign them, I couldn't resign them. Not after Callie finally called me… her father," Robert choked up and allowed tears to resurface. "I can't _give you_ my child."

"I'm not asking her you to _give her_ to me," Stef shook her head, "I'm asking you to think about Callie here—"

"You don't think that that hasn't been all I've been doing? Ever since I found out about her, I can't get her off of my mind."

"No, I think that you're only thinking about yourself," Stef answered honestly. "All you're telling me and all you're telling Callie is that you can't sign the papers again because it was hard for _you_. What about what _Callie_ wants?"

"I want what Callie wants. I want her to be happy."

"Then why are you making her so miserable?" Stef questioned. "Do you wanna know what your daughter did after she left the fundraiser? Not this daughter, the other one, the one that you claim to love but lie to every chance you get. Do you want to know what she did? ... She burned herself. You know, fire, matches, all over her arms and legs," Stef's voice was getting louder at the thought that it was essentially his fault that her daughter felt as hurt as she did. "She has burns on her knees that my wife and I had to clean up last night… She had to sleep in _our_ bed because she wanted to run away because she felt like _you_ were taking away the only thing that made her happy. Did you know about all of that?" Robert had to look away from the woman just to take in all that she was saying and Stef took a break and stopped talking for a while just because she didn't want to upset him because the truth was heartbreaking to all of them and she knew that he was in a difficult position. "Now, I don't want to attack you…but I don't want my daughter to fall under the cracks because I've failed to make a point that so desperately needs to be made. Callie needs to feel safe and right now she doesn't."

"And what about Sofia?" Robert asked abruptly. "What about her? What about what she wants?" he gestured toward his sleeping daughter.

"What about not trading one daughter's happiness over your other one? Sofia needs help and I hope she gets it, but I wont allow Callie to take Sofia's place in that hospital bed… Sofia didn't just take those pills because Callie told her she wants to stay with her family. And she's _not_ going to magically get better because you refuse to sign those papers."

Robert took a deep breath, "So I'm just supposed to forget that I have another daughter? Is that what you want me to do?"

"Robert," Jill tried to warn him to be silent.

"No, you're supposed to remember you have _two_. You're supposed to remember that one isn't just a means to make _you_ and _your other daughter_ happy. You're supposed to remember that Callie already has a family who cares about her whom she also cares about, and she was happy up until yesterday. If you really care about _her happiness_, you wouldn't be causing her so much misery right now…"

Robert looked at his daughter that was still laying in the hospital bed, at Stef, and at his wife, who was desperately pleading with him to listen to what the other woman was saying. "Will I still get to see her?" he finally asked.

"That's not up to me," Stef answered him. "That's up to Callie... But I can tell you that if you betray her like this, she won't ever forgive you so it won't really matter either way."

* * *

Callie woke up expecting to find Stef's hand and the cuffs wrapped around her wrist. But she glanced down and noticed that the cuffs were missing at it was Lena's hand was there instead of Stef's.

She wanted to feel relieved but part of her surprisingly felt safer than ever last night when she had Stef's arm wrapped around hers and the cuffs didn't make her feel as trapped as she felt they would. It made her feel like they actually cared about her if they had to go to such drastic measures to prove it.

She slowly lifted Lena's arm off of her to get up, when she heard Lena's voice from right behind her. "How'd you sleep?"

Callie sighed but still smiled even though Lena couldn't see it. "Okay, I guess… considering."

"Yes," Lena admitted. "I'm sorry I couldn't get her to take the cuffs off of you. You know that sometimes you can't talk Stef out of anything."

"Obviously," Callie smiled as she sat up from the bed.

"You'll learn to get passed that," Lena answered.

"Where is she anyway?"

"I'm actually not sure," Lena answered half-truthfully. " But hey, I'm going to get started on breakfast. Would you like to help me?"

Callie nodded, "Sure. Just let me go to the bathroom first."

"Okay," the woman said as she put on her slippers and left the room.

* * *

Stef barged into the house and the first thing she saw noticed was Callie coming down the stairs looking at her strangely. "Hey, sleepyhead. How'd you sleep?"

"Okay, I guess."

"Well at least one of us slept," Stef mumbled. "You kept tugging on my wrist all night long. I thought you were playing foosball in your sleep," she joked.

"And whose fault as that?" Callie asked sarcastically as she made her way to the last step.

"Not mine," Stef smiled as she handed the teen an evelope.

"What is this?" Callie asked worriedly.

"Open it up and see," Stef answered casually as she took her leather jacket off and hung it on the hook.

The brunette did so, skeptically, and then realized exactly what it was. "Stef?"

"Uhuh?" the woman smiled.

"You know, I'm pretty sure you can get jail time for this."

Stef rolled her eyes. "Oh my God, Callie. They're not forged," she answered flatly.

"Then how did you—"

"I told you that I'd take care of it, yes?"

"Yeah but… I don't…"

"I took care of it. You don't have to understand... Plus, you get to mail them yourself this time so…"

Callie just stared at the papers that had Robert Quinn's signatures on all three forms. She was still trying to find any spot that he missed in case this was another trick or something as she sat on the couch in the living room.

"I made him sign every single line so stop worrying."

"I just…" the girl stopped to look up at the blonde. "…Um, thank you."

Stef smiled as she gave her daughter a kiss on her forehead, "You don't have to thank me. Just don't ever doubt my abilities ever again," she warned playfully as she widened her eyes at the teen.

Callie gave her a small smile, "Trust me. I won't."

"You better not," the blonde continued, as she pulled out the cuffs from her jean's pocket, "Because these babies are going to be with me 24/7 from now on."

"One of these days we're going to get you back," Lena smiled as she walked over toward them after having listened in.

"Oh, I'd love to see you try," Stef attempted to flirt back with her wife.

"Okay," Callie started to get up from the sofa from the awkwardness in the room. "I guess I'll get started on breakfast," she answered as she began walking over toward the kitchen while shaking her head and smiling.

_They were her moms now… All awkwardness and all._

**THE END.**

* * *

**A/N: Wow! I'm finally finished. You guys have no idea how satisfying it is to finish a story. Phew! I feel like a giant weight has been lifted off of me :)**

**I'd like to say thank you to everyone who read, followed, favorited, and reviewed. Your reviews definitely kept me going.**

**I'm actually glad I wrote this sequel even though at first I really didn't want to. I tried to make it as different as possible than the first but hopefully I kept it somewhat the same. I added more Lena to it this time around since Burned mostly had Callie/Stef so hopefully that showed through.**

**This time I had Callie dealing with other coping mechanisms besides self-harm, which I thought added to the seriousness of how she felt about everything and made for a better story than "Oh she's burning herself…" **

**Hopefully it didn't get too boring and wasn't too short. I was running out of inspiration and I don't like to drag stories on either if nothing is really happening.**

**If anyone wants to do a sequel to the sequel, knock yourself out. I'm pretty much done with this whole thing for right now. If you guys have request for this burning thing, preferably a one or two shot request, shoot them at me. I'll be willing to try them if I feel like I can. Just know that I am writing a ton of stories right now, so I may be a little slow.**

**Alright, I never know what to say at these endings so just PEACE OUT! :)**


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